Bing Chat immediately followed ChatGPT and became one of the most sophisticated chatbots around, and that's partly because it's powered by Microsoft Prometheus, which is based on GPT-4. GPT-4 is developed by OpenAI, which also developed ChatGPT, and Bing Chat is the only free way to currently access it. What's more, it's connected to the internet, so you can make use of it to help you research. What exactly is Bing Chat, though, and how does it work?

How does Bing Chat work?

Bing Chat is in a unique position because it was made possible primarily by the work done by OpenAI. When it first launched, Microsoft touted Bing Chat as being "more powerful" than ChatGPT, though only because it's based on a newer version of that learning language model (LLM). Since then, users can pay for ChatGPT Plus to experience GPT-4 in the same way that you can Bing Chat for free. Microsoft's Prometheus is described as being able to "best leverage" GPT-4's power, though Microsoft doesn't give many details as to how it's implemented.

Bing Chat can also access the live internet, even pulling citations for some of the claims that it makes in its responses. That gives it a massive advantage over ChatGPT, as it allows you to verify the authenticity of the information when you ask a question. You can even feed it a URL and ask it to summarize the page or even ask it to look something up for you.

Bing Chat also has one more feature up its sleeve that still no competitor can contend with, and that's the ability to choose the style of response. You can ask it to reply in a "More Creative," "More Balanced," or "More Precise" tone. These styles help shape the conversation you have with Bing Chat and can be chosen based on what you're asking it.

Who made Bing Chat?

Bing Chat was developed by Microsoft and announced on Feb. 7, 2023. It used to be accessible only via a waiting list, but the company lifted that restriction a few months ago. It's now accessible globally, unlike Google Bard, which is unavailable in the EU and certain other regions. All you need is a Microsoft account and to be logged into the Edge browser, and you can use it freely. You can also use it without logging in, but you're limited to five responses per day. Speaking of daily limits...

Is there still a limit on Bing Chat conversation lengths?

Bing Chat still limits how much you can talk to it daily. You can exchange 30 messages per conversation, and you can exchange 300 total on any given day across multiple chats. These limits are imposed to help prevent abuse or confusion of Bing's AI, in particular, as AI can get a bit weird over the course of a long conversation. Furthermore, Microsoft also limits the prompt to 2000 characters, likely again in an attempt to limit abuse.

Can Bing Chat generate images?

Unlike other chatbots, Bing Chat can also generate images powered by DALL-E. These images are generated as 1024x1024 JPG images and can be modified and changed once generated. You can generate as many as you would like, up to the cap of 30 messages in that conversation.

Can I use Bing Chat in Google Chrome?

Bing Chat is only officially supported in mobile apps and in the Microsoft Edge browser, but it's easy to get it working on Google Chrome. You can either install an extension that replaces your user agent, or you can do it manually.

To do it manually, open Bing and right-click the page and click Inspect. Next, click Network conditions in the bottom right, and change the user agent to Microsoft Edge. Refreshing the page will then show you Bing Chat as normal.

You can also use a simple plugin. Search for "user agent switcher" in your plugin store of choice, and it should yield results that will allow you to spoof a Microsoft Edge client. You obviously won't get a sidebar integration or anything like that, but Bing Chat will work, and that's the main thing.

Is Bing Chat better than Google Bard or ChatGPT?

Bing Chat has multiple advantages over both Google Bard and ChatGPT. For example, the ability to set conversation tones from the simple click of a button is unique to Bing, though you can ask Bard or ChatGPT to reply to you in more precise or more creative responses instead. Image generation is also unique to Bing right now, although that could change as these chatbots develop.

Where Bing Chat currently flourishes is its ability to provide citations and share real-world examples to questions that you ask it. While it's not perfect, Google Bard has already struggled with doing exactly that (though it technically can as well), and ChatGPT can't do it at all. All generative AI models are essentially experimental at this point in time, but Microsoft's efforts have paid off well here.

The future of Bing Chat

Microsoft has shown that it is taking Bing Chat seriously, and it's, so far, probably the best of the bunch when it comes to generative AI. It can research for you and provide citations, it can change its language style to suit what you want, and it can even generate images. What's more, it's the only way to access GPT-4 for free still, and GPT-4 is the best language model currently available.