When Google’s AI Overviews told people to put glue in their pizza earlier this year, the internet responded with ways to turn AI Overviews off and threats to leave Google Search behind altogether. Unfortunately, AI is about to follow Google refugees, because Bing is about to get its own, even more intense version of AI overviews.
While it’s not quite ready yet, Microsoft’s Bing Generative Search is about to totally change what the Bing homepage looks like. While Google’s AI Overviews are largely limited to a small box at the top of the page, Bing Generative Search will offer an information box, bullet points, related content, and videos that take up the entire left half of your screen. The “Traditional Search Results,” as Microsoft calls them, will still show up, but in a small sidebar to the right.
Microsoft explains the new layout as an “AI-generated experience,” saying that if someone searches for “What is a spaghetti western,” they’ll see AI-powered boxes that explain “the film subgenre, including its history and origins, top examples, and more.”
While information is clearly sourced and there’s even a table of contents, it looks like it could be more than a little overwhelming, even as Microsoft promises that it will be “easy to read.” It also puts a lot less emphasis on articles already on the web, and requires users to scroll down several times to see more than the top 10 or so links.
There’s currently no information on if there will be a way to turn Bing Generative Search off, or even a timetable for release. Microsoft says it’s currently “slowly rolling this out” and will “take [its] time” to listen to feedback. More information will arrive “in the coming months.”
Beyond having the same potential for misinformation that Google struggled with, another concern with this kind of AI is that it might reduce clickthrough rates or even plagiarize content, something that has actually driven legislation in Australia. Microsoft promises that Bing Generative Search “maintains the number of clicks to websites and supports a healthy web ecosystem,” but whether this will be another squat plug style debacle remains to be seen.