Bing Chat, the ChatGPT-infused search engine preview that’s all the rage is now on your iPhone and Android phones where I’ve found it to be as wild as it is on desktop.
In fact, it’s wilder. Unlike the desktop, the Bing mobile ChatGPT has the added special ingredient of a voice. That’s right, Bing is talking to you. There’s a certain irony here that the most interesting thing Microsoft has done in years is also a moment to reflect on the company’s latest Quixotic foray into voice assistants: Cortana.
You remember Cortana, right? If you have already played Halo, then you have at least a passing knowledge of the AI assistant who helped Master Chief navigate his world. This fictional AI character was so popular that Microsoft adopted the moniker as the code name for its own real-world AI assistant, then kept the name when it introduced it a decade ago.
Cortana never delivered on its AI promise and was eventually deprecated and eventually removed from Microsoft products.
Another chance at voice AI
We now have a new AI voice chatbot from Microsoft and OpenAi (via a modified version of ChatGPT) that doesn’t have its own name, it just lives inside Bing.
Still, knowing Microsoft’s history and having spent two weeks playing with Bing chat on my desktop, I couldn’t resist having some voice-to-voice time with Bing mobile.
I redownloaded the Bing search app, a mobile software I hadn’t touched in years.
While the desktop places the large “Ask me anything…” prompt window in the center, I had to select the small “b” icon at the bottom of the Bing app screen to access to AI-powered chat.
After installation, you’ll still need to decide if you want to let the app track you (I always say “no”) and give it access to your microphone so Bing can hear your query (say “yes”).
It’s weird, but I have what you might call AI anxiety. Faced with an artificial intelligence that encourages me to “ask it anything”, I freeze, unable to think of a single good question.
Help on the go
I finally settled on “Bing, write me a haiku about being on the iPhone,” which I talked about on the app.
Note that you don’t have to start with “Bing”. This is not a watchword and activating Bing powered by ChatGPT AI required pressing the Bing button.
Bing took a considerable amount of time to respond. One thing I noticed is that Bing also shows what it is looking for based on your query. It’s pedantic but also useful in case you hear that Bing misunderstood and you want to stop Bing’s search.
After a few moments, Bing recited in a female voice that sounded a bit like Cortana this original haiku:
On the iPhone screen
A world of information
Bing is here to help
Not bad and yes he hit the 5-7-5 syllable limits for each line of haiku.
Next, I asked Bing to come up with a romantic dinner for two with seafood and rice. The only caveat is that the preparation time had to be less than 30 minutes.
After another long wait, the Bing AI chat told me about two recipes and asked which one I would like. It is here, however, that the conversational aspect breaks down a bit. Instead of leaving the microphone open to receive my response, I found that I had to press the microphone button again. After that, I told Bing that I had chosen the “second”. Bing then graciously provided the salmon and rice recipe, which he would have read in full if I had let him.
Finally, I asked the Bing AI chat to play a game of Tic-Tac-Toe with me.
Bing happily agreed and presented an all-text game board and, without asking me, took the first step as “X”. Each time one of us made a move, he announced on the board, not only the position of the “X’s” and the “O’s”, but also the dashes and plus signs he was using to make it. Alright, I could live with that awkwardness for now.
After a few moves, I was ready to block the Bing AI chat to win. Unfortunately, Bing cheats and insists he wins even though the board has shown that he doesn’t.
Aside from its sketchy gameplay moves, the mobile version of Bing AI is relatively engaging. Microsoft still needs to work on speed if it wants it to be true conversational AI and take on Siri and Alexa. Otherwise, Cortana might have given her digital life in vain.
