When Microsoft announced that it was rolling out a new Chat mode within Bing, I joined the waitlist almost immediately. But even though I was among the privileged few to gain early access, I found myself rapidly losing interest in the feature. From a practical perspective, ChatGPT delivered longer creative responses and I had no interest in “jailbreaking” Bing to elicit an emotional response. As for everyday searches, I still preferred a list of conventional web results over a 200-word reading exercise.
All of that changed a few days ago when Microsoft brought Bing’s Chat mode to mobile and gave it a voice. To my surprise, this small change was enough to reel me back in. While back-and-forth interaction with a chatbot can feel laborious over a keyboard, speaking out loud in plain English comes naturally. Moreover, it’s something many of us have already become accustomed to with Alexa and Google Assistant. But unlike those services, talking to the new Bing actually feels like I’m actually interacting with a knowledgeable virtual assistant.