Jennifer Elias, reporting for CNBC:
Google is testing new artificial intelligence-powered chat products that are likely to influence a future public product launch.
[…]
One of the test products is a chatbot called Apprentice Bard, which uses Google’s conversation technology LaMDA… Employees can enter a question in a dialog box and get a text answer, then give feedback on the response. Based on several responses viewed by CNBC, Apprentice Bard’s answers can include recent events, a feature ChatGPT doesn’t have yet.
[…]
The company is also testing an alternate search page that could use a question-and-answer format, according to designs viewed by CNBC… When a question is entered, the search results show a gray bubble directly under the search bar, offering more human-like responses than typical search results. Directly beneath that, the page suggests several follow-up questions related to the first one. Under that, it shows typical search results, including links and headlines.
The potential new search page sounds pretty similar to what I described as an ideal interface last month. Microsoft on the other hand…
Student and designer Owen Yin reported seeing the “new Bing” on Twitter this morning.
[…]
Screenshots of the AI-augmented Bing show a new “chat” option appearing in the menu bar next to “search.” Select it and you’re taken to a chat interface that says, “Welcome to the new Bing: Your AI-powered answer engine.”
Definitely visit the story above to see (alleged) screenshots of the new Bing interface. I am going to try to withhold judgment until this feature is officially released but at the moment it looks like, instead of actually working to create any kind of meaningful search and chat integration, Microsoft just slapped a ChatGPT tab onto the bing.com homepage. I hope they continue iterating before making this public.