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Bing AI chatbot gets faster at responding – and better sports knowledge, too
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Microsoft has provided its regular weekly update on improvements for Bing AI, and there are some impressive strides forward this week.

Neowin spotted that the chatbot now has reduced latency spikes when it comes to certain answers, meaning you won’t be hanging around as long for a reply in these cases.

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As Mikhail Parakhin, Microsoft’s head of Advertising and Web Services, explained on Twitter, this is a result of Bing AI getting a “completely reworked backend for inner monologue”, meaning streamlining the chatbot’s ‘thinking’ process.

A second benefit this week is better handling of sports-related queries, so the range of topics covered in this field is now considerably broader, from the NHL to the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Finally, there’s a boon for those using Bing AI in Skype, with the ability to generate images (Bing Image Creator) now present within Skype conversations.

Analysis: The importance of being snappy

A snappier Bing AI is vital. Whatever query you throw at the chatbot, you want the response to come with a minimum of hanging around. If you find yourself tapping your foot (or perhaps your finger on the keyboard) while waiting for Bing to get back to you, that’ll be off-putting (and might remind you of live chats, where waits can be frustrating if a help agent is dealing with multiple simultaneous queries).

That responsiveness is a key area for Bing to do well in (that and, of course, the accuracy and usefulness of the response delivered, which is always paramount). So Microsoft is quite right to be honing away on this front.

That said, you can still be subject to waiting times that aren’t the fault of the backend (inner workings of Bing as it processes queries), but are purely due to traffic spikes. When lots of people are using the chatbot, things get more sluggish purely in terms of coping with that volume.

Incidentally, Parakhin elaborated on this in the above Twitter thread, noting that the major peaks of usage occur when folks arrive in work (at three main times – when the US East coast arrives, then when Europe comes to work, then the Far East). That corresponds to 7am, 5pm and 1am PDT, if you’re curious.

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China’s Baidu AI is better than ChatGPT – here’s why
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ChatGPT has quickly become the gold standard that other AI chatbots have been striving to reach – and defeat. Now, according to a bold statement from Chinese tech giant Baidu, another AI has apparently done so.

Baidu announced that its latest version of the ‘Ernie’ AI model, Ernie 3.5, has already beaten ChatGPT in several key metrics, according to Business Today. Baidu, the leading search engine in China, stated that Ernie 3.5 beats out ChatGPT in both comprehensive ability scores and general performance in Chinese language tasks. 

It supports these claims by citing a test from state newspaper China Science Daily, which used datasets from AGIEval and C-Eval – two benchmarks for AI performance, essentially. ChatGPT creator OpenAI has apparently not responded to Business Today concerning these claims as of this writing.

Baidu also stated that its latest Ernie model features enhanced training and inference efficiency, which it claims will make the AI faster and more cost-efficient later down the line. Lastly, the new model will support plugins, add-on applications that can perform additional tasks – like summarising lengthy text or generating more accurate answers.

TechRadar has also reached out for comment concerning Baidu’s claims against OpenAI’s ChatGPT and will update this story if and when we hear back.

Baidu competing against ChatGPT…and Google? 

It’s important to note that while there’s no official English release for Ernie, Baidu’s main search engine platform itself is available in English language. The fact that it has English versions of its other services could suggest that it would be interested – and certainly capable – of bringing its Ernie AI model to the West.

Such a move would be intriguing, not only to see how well its Ernie 3.5 would actually fare against ChatGPT, but also to see how the company would deal with another rival — Google.

Google is the world’s most popular search engine, with an overwhelming market share of more than 90%. Naturally, it’s leveraging that reach to power up its own AI model, Bard, by integrating it into its search results – not to mention including elsewhere it in its Google Workspaces suite, beefing up the software’s capabilities with AI.

Baidu is China’s answer to Google (they even have Baidu Maps), and could easily do the same, leveraging its AI model to complement its search engine and drive interest in Ernie as a standalone AI service.

Of course, this would also put it in direct opposition with Google, which could result in some very intense competition – but competition can only help consumers in the end, so I welcome the idea with open arms.

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Microsoft just made its Bing AI chatbot much better for iPhone owners
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Microsoft’s Bing chatbot is now more readily accessible for iOS users thanks to a new widget, plus the AI has been bolstered to perform more responsively when using voice input on an iPhone.

Windows Central spotted that Microsoft has implemented a Bing Chat widget that can be added to the Home screen, allowing you to initiate a session with the chatbot with a simple tap. That’s a handy ability indeed for regular users of Bing AI on iOS devices.

For instructions on how to add a widget to the iPhone Home screen, check here.

In the Bing blog post announcing this new feature for iOS, Microsoft also tells us that it has made progress on another front for iPhone owners – namely better performance for the voice input button on the Bing mobile app (for iOS, and Android as well). When you tap the button it should now indicate that it’s listening instantly.

Analysis: Catching up with Android

The widget is a very useful touch in terms of convenience for regular users on the iPhone, and it brings the Bing Chat experience up to parity with the Android version (which already had this feature).

Overall, Microsoft’s setting a pretty fast pace of development with its Bing AI, as considerable progress is being made on a weekly basis, with both the mobile and desktop incarnations of the chatbot.

Regarding the latter, we’ve just seen that Microsoft has brought voice input to desktop PCs (previously this had been a mobile-only feature). The idea is to make for a more natural chatting experience with the Bing chatbot, allowing you to speak to the AI, and have it reply via spoken words, too.

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Google Maps Immersive View just keeps getting better
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Google Maps’ best feature, Immersive View, just got a whole lot better. You can now explore 3D maps of four new cities and over 500 new landmarks thanks to Google’s AI.

Immersive View is Google Maps’ souped-up 3D map, and it’s a solid free tool for helping to plan trips. Using AI, Google has fused billions of images together to create fairly realistic 3D maps of cities (including the newly released Amsterdam, Dublin, Florence, and Venice) and hundreds of landmarks (such as Sydney Harbour Bridge and Boston’s Faneuil Hall).

While you're soaring over these virtual locations Google Maps will highlight nearby locations such as cafes, restaurants and hotels. This more immersive perspective provides an easy-to-understand sense of size and scale compared to using regular Google Maps. You can even go inside some locations, using a Google AI called NeRF – this allows you to peek into select restaurants and cafes before you book online.

We particularly like Immersive View’s timeline tool. This feature will show you the expected weather – complete with virtual clouds, sun, or rain – and how busy you should expect the destination to be over the following days. Google Maps has always had this data, but Immersive View makes it a lot less tedious to scan through it to find the optimal times to visit particular locations on your trip.

The new landmarks and cities should be rolling out from today to Google Maps users on Android and iOS.

More Maps updates on the way 

Immersive View isn’t the only Google Maps feature getting an update.

Glanceable directions will be rolling out globally on iOS and Android later this month. Once you opt in to the service (Google doesn’t explain how you'll do this, but it’ll likely appear as a popup once the update goes live, and later will be found in your settings), you just need to call up directions and start walking, cycling, or driving to your destination – without hitting Start for in-depth directions or Live View for AR navigation.

Google Maps Glanceable Directions in action, your icon moves along the route, takes a detour and almsot a wrong turn before correcting it and arriving at the destination.

(Image credit: Google Maps)

As you move, your location marker will travel with you, and your ETA will update in real time, and you can even swap to a different route if you decide to travel a slower but more scenic way. Google says this tool is aimed at people who are familiar with where they’re going; they don’t need constant callouts saying ‘Turn here’, they just need to occasionally glance at their phone to make sure they’re still headed in the right direction. 

Next month, Google Maps users on desktop should look out for an update to Recents. Previously, this feature would show you the most recent destinations you’ve looked up in your current Google Maps session, but when you closed the Window this info would be lost. The upcoming update will enable you to see your recently visited locations from previous sessions, which should make it much easier to research potential places to visit on your next trip.

You can research hotels, landmarks, and other attractions across multiple sessions, then make a custom route or saved list when you've decided where you'd like to go. Plus, as you whittle down places to visit, you can remove them from your Recents list so that they aren’t cluttering up the list.

Looking for more ways to use Google Maps? Check out this list of 10 things you might not know Google Maps can do.

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Microsoft’s on a roll with another change that’ll make Windows 11 better
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In the future Windows 11 will offer users the ability to ditch the Microsoft News feed from the widgets panel.

Currently, the widgets panel – accessed via the taskbar in Windows 11 – contains a mix of widgets (as you might expect) alongside MSN news stories highlighted by Microsoft.

Windows Central reports that Microsoft has made the decision to give users the choice to drop said news feed. You’ll be able to choose from different layouts for the widgets panel, in fact, some of which will have the MSN news feed in them – and one will be widgets-only.

This is yet another step forward Microsoft has taken with Windows 11’s widgets board in recent times.

Notably, the software giant is currently experimenting with a larger widgets panel, one that’s an extra column wide (three instead of two), giving you plenty of real-estate to view your widget-related stuff. And that’ll be even truer when you can get rid of MSN, and have a large panel entirely dedicated to all your widgets – if you have a lot of them.

Widget fans will also be pleased at rumors – quite strong ones – Microsoft is going to allow them to be dragged onto and pinned to the desktop. Plus we’re also seeing some extra touches like animated icons for widgets coming in, and new widgets from the likes of major players like Facebook. Microsoft is driving hard with this area of the OS, for sure.

Analysis: On the right track

For us, this is another change to Windows 11 which isn’t that hard to implement, and just makes the OS better. More choice is always good, and Microsoft appears to have taken that message to heart with some of its most recent changes from the Build conference this week.

You’ll now be able to choose whether you want to see MSN news in the widgets panel (some regard it as unnecessary bloat, but if you don’t, you can still have those news headline highlights). You’ll also be able to choose whether you want to ‘never combine’ apps on the taskbar (finally). Those right there are two key choices – at least for us – that can tailor the OS to work the way you want.

Now, Microsoft, how about giving us a big old hefty, really important, choice: to turn off any prompts or help – the stuff like badging in the Windows 11 interface, or suggestions that pop up under the Ribbon when you’re using Office, prompts to take a tour of features (that seasoned users really don’t need), anything like that – in one fell swoop, system-wide. A no nag switch, if you will, that also ditches things like messaging to tell you to upgrade to the next incarnation of Windows. Quiet mode, we could call it…

That won’t happen, of course, but hey, we can always hope for something along those lines. Whatever the case, Microsoft is clearly heading in the right direction by giving users more options to turn off stuff they don’t want, or reinstate settings from Windows 10 that were sorely missed by some users. In short, keep up the good work, Microsoft, and give us more of this sort of thing – choice.

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MoviePass is back, better, and maybe more confusing than before
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MoviePass has made its long-awaited return as it launches a new subscription service in the United States.

We first saw the service as a limited beta all the way back in September 2022. It looks like the current version is mostly the same as the original although it is a bit more expansive. The way it works is you pay a monthly fee to watch a certain number of movies in theaters without having to buy a ticket. There are four tiers with prices ranging from $ 10 up to $ 40. However, rather than giving people a flat number of films they can watch in a month, MoviePass opts for a credit system with each tier giving users a fixed amount to use.

The $ 10 Basic tier offers the least, with 34 credits that allow people to watch somewhere between one to three movies a month. The $ 20 Standard Plan gives 72 credits for three to seven viewings a month. Premium ($ 30 a month) gives 113 credits for five to eleven films.  

The most expensive plan, the $ 40 Pro, grants 640 credits allowing people to watch up to 30 movies across 30 days. You can think of Pro as the “spiritual successor” to the previous (and disastrous) version of MoviePass. 

MoviePass Plans

(Image credit: MoviePass)

Varying costs

A MoviePass representative told us the cost (in credits) of a single movie is tied to the “day of the week” plus what time you’re watching, although they didn’t provide any further details. A recent report from TechCrunch claims Tuesdays are the cheapest whereas opening weekends are one of the more expensive options. Unused credits do roll over to the next month. Company CEO Stacy Spikes told TechCrunch people “can have up to a maximum of two months of unused credits” on their account.

These prices are for the general user in the US. The plans are more expensive if you live in either Southern California or the New York metropolitan area. Basic is $ 20, Standard is $ 30, Premium is $ 40, and Pro is $ 60 with no option to purchase a cheaper tier, according to a company representative. But users in those areas do get roughly double the number of credits. Standard, for example, offers 140 in Los Angeles instead of 72.

Availability

As for why MoviePass is adopting this system, the company states it lets members “choose the plan that best suits their viewing habits and budget.” The idea is whether you’re a casual theatergoer or a movie nerd, there’s something for everyone.

There are a couple of things we haven’t mentioned yet. You can’t watch 3D movies with the subscription, although there are plans to include “large format and premium screens” (presumably IMAX) soon. The service is supported by over 4,000 theaters across the country. A full list of every location can be found on the official website. The service is now open – just in time for Memorial Day. This holiday should provide an interesting proving ground for MoviePass.

We asked the same representative if they could provide us with exact numbers on how much it’ll cost to watch a film because that’s the one piece of information strangely missing from all this. And if there are plans for an international launch. This story will be updated at a later time.

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Google Maps is getting a better Immersive View to help you plan trips
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Google Maps is getting a big boost to its impressive Immersive View Mode to help you plan routes and trips using its bird's-eye view.

Announced at Google I/O 2023, which you can follow at our Google I/O 2023 liveblog, Google Maps Immersive View for routes will bring you a 3D view of your planned journey – for example, a bike ride or drive. This will give you a clearer real-world view of the neighborhoods you're going through, plus other information like traffic, air quality, temperature and more.

This all sounds a lot more useful than Google Maps' traditional overhead view, and could also be a very helpful tool for planning photography trips. But given that many of us are still waiting for the first version of Immersive View to roll out, it may be a while before you can start using it to plan trips.

A Google Maps Immersive View map showing a city

(Image credit: Google)

Google says it will begin rolling the feature out for a few cities this summer (in other words, between now and August), and will eventually cover 15 cities “by the end of the year”. These will include Los Angeles, New York, Miami, London, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Tokyo, Seattle, and Venice.

We've previously called Google Maps Immersive View a “next-gen Street View”. That's because it uses a combination of Street View and aerial imagery to give you digital recreations of cities in Google Maps, complete with real-time information. 

A Google Maps Immersive View map showing a city

(Image credit: Google)

The fact that this is all coming to route planning, rather than just tourist attractions in major cities, is great news, and should make piecing together journey plans a lot more intuitive. 

Combine this with Indoor Live View, a separate feature that displays AR arrows over your real-world view, and Maps will soon become an even bigger essential for tourists and the perennially lost. 

But Apple Maps is also becoming a stronger rival thanks to features like Flyover view, and we'll want to see Immersive View roll out much quicker than it has done so far before declaring a Street View-sized success.

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Microsoft has a new plan to make Edge better than Chrome
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Microsoft Edge is going to make an effort to help you improve the browser with a new system of badges for add-ons.

Add-ons (also referred to as extensions) are little extras that can be bolted onto the browser to deliver all kinds of functionality, but clearly the trick to making Edge better with them is choosing good add-ons, and not bloat or poor-quality efforts (or even malicious ones in a worst-case scenario).

As MS Power User reports, what the new system delivers is a badge – a visual icon, present on the product description page and elsewhere – to show that any given browser extension is of a high enough quality to deserve that label. So in short, you know you’re getting something you can trust, and that will work well.

Microsoft says that it’ll soon start to experiment with testing extension badges in the Edge Addons Store (EAS). The company notes: “Edge is starting with a small-scale experiment and will begin to engage with the developer community to talk through the criterion and help them get acquainted with the badging process on EAS.”

Analysis: Another step in the right direction

Badges will also act as a carrot for devs to make better extensions, too. As Microsoft explains, developers will be encouraged to follow best practice guidelines when putting together their add-ons in order to try to qualify for a badge that’ll ensure their products are more likely to be used by Edge fans. So, it’s more likely that the extensions being made will be of a higher quality, broadly speaking, or at least that’s the hope.

There are quite a number of add-ons in the library available to Edge users at this point, so helping to sort the wheat from the chaff is definitely a good idea. According to Microsoft, there are almost 11,000 extensions for Edge at this point, and that’ll keep on growing, naturally.

It’s good to see the software giant taking more positive steps to try and improve Edge as a product. We’ve also glimpsed another innovative step in recent times, namely the integrated free VPN that’s been in testing (and has supposedly just reached release, at least for some Edge users).

All this is refreshing, primarily because advancing Edge with extra capabilities and fresh features is what we want to see, not experimenting with how more adverts can be jammed into Windows 11 to push Edge (let’s stop with that already, Microsoft, please).

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Microsoft Teams is going to use green screen technology to make your video calls better
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Scratchy, low quality virtual backgrounds have been a staple of video conferences at work since the Covid-19 pandemic began, but, from April 2023, Microsoft Teams will have a solution, in the form of green screen support.

Artificial intelligence is at the point where software such as NVIDIA Broadcast and Google Meet can support virtual backgrounds and blur effects without any additional software or hardware, but for maximum quality, a green screen works wonders.

How? In the Microsoft 365 roadmap listing for the planned feature, Microsoft says that “Green screen improves the sharpness and definition of the virtual background effect around your face, head, ears, and hair. It also allows you to show a prop or other object in your hand to be more visible to other participants in a call.” 

Teams green screen

Having a real, physical green screen behind you during your 9-5 is slightly more embarrassing than pretending you’re at the beach or a revolting strawberry, but there’s a good reason you might want to invest in one when the feature rolls out.

“The virtual background with a green screen,” Microsoft goes on to say, “provides the best virtual background effect, consuming fewer system resources, allowing your Teams to run smoother.”

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> Microsoft Teams is adding one of the worst Zoom features

> How to hide your background in video conferencing

> We’ve also listed the best business webcams right now 

If your mobile workstation or business laptop is low-spec, and you’ve been having trouble getting virtual backgrounds on Teams to work well, a green screen could be the best way to get in on this often strange and terrifying feature.

And if you’re really looking to terrify (and terrorize) your colleagues on Teams, you could go one worse and set up a metaverse-style avatar.

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Windows 11 steals a great Microsoft Teams feature for better video calls
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Windows 11 is set to get one of Microsoft Team’s best features, thanks to “Voice Clarity”, which will use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to make your voice in calls and recordings much clearer.

Microsoft Teams, an app that many people use for video calls, has a very similar feature that does an excellent job at minimizing and eliminating background noises for people in noisy environments, ensuring they can be heard clearly.

With the feature being so acclaimed, it’s little surprise to see Microsoft bring it to the wider Windows 11 operating system, which would allow the feature to work with other video calling apps. Voice Clarity was announced at Microsoft’s recent ‘Hybrid Work’ event as one of the ways the company is making its products better for people who are now spending their time working from home, as well as in an office.

While the noise-canceling features in Microsoft Teams have proved popular, there’s not a huge amount of love for the application itself, so bringing it to Windows 11 itself could prove a popular move.

Analysis: There’s always a catch

Surface Laptop Studio

(Image credit: Future)

While the idea of making Voice Clarity available to more apps and users, the catch is that at the moment, the feature will only work on the Surface Laptop Studio, a relatively niche product from Microsoft.

That’s certainly a shame, as it means that the vast majority of Windows 11 users still won’t be able to make use of the feature.

It’s a bit of a puzzling decision, and we’ve contacted Microsoft to ask why this is the case. It may be due to some hardware-specific requirements that only the Surface Laptop Studio has. Or, Microsoft could just be limiting the availability of the feature to help boost interest in the Surface Laptop Studio.

But, with an increasing number of us relying on video calls for keeping in contact with friends, family and co-workers, any tools that can help make those calls better is certainly welcome, and we’d love to see Microsoft make the Voice Clarity feature more widely available.

Via Windows Latest

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