Microsoft Build 2023 Roundup: 5 Major AI and Bing Chat Announcements

Last week saw the annual Microsoft Build conference take place and we are here to round it all up for you! But first, what is Microsoft Build? If you’re new to the Dev scene or haven’t heard of this epic event, let us fill you in. Microsoft Build is the annual flagship conference event for developers held by none other than Microsoft itself. It’s a powerhouse showcase of the new and improved cutting-edge Microsoft dev tools and services, carefully curated to empower developers, both in the present and for what lies ahead.

We know there was a lot (a LOT!!) to take in from Build last week, but don’t worry, because this blog post is your ultimate guide to help you navigate through the latest and greatest announcements from Build 2023 and offer some critical details on the key announcements you might be most interested in!

This year’s Microsoft Build features a fantastic line-up of news and some exciting announcements. But before we dive into the latest Microsoft Build announcements, can we just take a moment to address the fact that Charles Lamanna announced that there are over 33 million monthly active users of Power Platform!! Sounds like Power Platform is getting bigger by the day!

Anyways… back to it! Here is your roundup, and our top 5 announcements from Microsoft Build 2023. Let’s go!

1. Bing to ChatGPT

Satya Nadella announced in his keynote session at Microsoft Build that Microsoft will be bringing Bing to ChatGPT. This advancement will bring the best of Bing to the default ChatGPT experience. This will give you higher quality and more timely answers. This is going to launch in ChatGPT+ immediately and it is quickly coming even in the free tier. Satya announced that this is just the start of many big things they plan to do with their partners in OpenAI to bring the best of Bing to the ChatGPT experience.

Yusuf Mehdi took the stage during Satya’s keynote session to explain all this greatness. So how will this Bing integration work? Yusuf explained that when you select Bing as the default in ChatGPT you can ask it real-time queries, for example, you could ask it something like “What can I expect to hear at The European Power Platform Conference 2023?” We tried and tested this out by asking ChatGPT with Bing search for you – take a look for yourself below!

What you can see here is that the results are more up to date. They include fresh content and they include citations as you can see by the green links. If you click these green links, it will take you directly to a webpage that’s sourced by Bing. Now, answers are grounded by search and web data and include citations so users can learn more, all directly from within chat. The new experience is rolling out to ChatGPT Plus subscribers starting today and will be available to free users soon by simply enabling a plugin.

2. Bing Chat Plugins

During the event, Yusuf took the stage to reveal an exciting development – the introduction of plugins to Windows, creating a seamless integration between ChatGPT and Bing. This ground-breaking interoperability ensures that plugins can be written once and run across both platforms. Now, you can enjoy the same set of plugins in Bing Chat and ChatGPT, maximizing convenience and efficiency. Embracing the open plugin standard introduced by OpenAI for ChatGPT, Microsoft is fostering interoperability not only within ChatGPT but also across the extensive range of Microsoft’s Copilot offerings.

Expanding on the concept of plugins, Microsoft revealed a slew of new additions coming to Bing Chat. Soon, users will have access to plugins like Expedia, Kayak, and Zillow, offering enhanced functionality and an enriched user experience. What’s more, developers now have the power to integrate their own applications within Windows Copilot. This means a single platform can be used to build plugins that seamlessly operate across consumer and business surfaces, encompassing ChatGPT, Bing, Dynamics 365 Copilot (in preview), and Microsoft 365 Copilot (in preview). By default, any AI app developed using Azure OpenAI Service will effortlessly adhere to this interoperable plugin standard, empowering developers to create experiences that enable natural language interaction between users and their applications.

As part of this shared plugin platform, Bing is expanding its support for plugins beyond the previously announced OpenTable and Wolfram Alpha. Expect to see renowned names like Expedia, Instacart, Kayak, Klarna, Redfin, Zillow, and many more joining the thriving Bing ecosystem. The possibilities for seamless integration and enriching user experiences are now boundless.

3. Windows Copilot

Copilot is coming to the biggest canvas of all – Windows! Microsoft is revolutionising the way we interact with our computers. This ground-breaking development marks a significant milestone in the evolution of operating systems, as Windows 11 becomes the first OS to adopt such a comprehensive AI assistant. With the assistance of Windows Copilot, the operating system becomes a powerful ally in navigating the digital landscape and ensuring optimal productivity.

By seamlessly integrating Bing Chat and a vast collection of plugins from both first- and third-party sources, Windows is placing the emphasis back on unleashing your creativity, conquering complex projects, and collaborating seamlessly. Windows Copilot has now been carefully crafted to be your trusted digital companion, harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to deliver personalised assistance across all your Windows applications. Whether it’s providing tech support, summarising documents, suggesting music, or answering your burning questions, this AI-powered tool operates as the ultimate search engine and chatbot combined.

During the announcement, Satya expressed his belief that the introduction of Copilot to Windows will make every user a power user of Windows. The anticipation is high and we eagerly await the exciting possibilities this synergy will unlock.

Mark your calendars, as Windows 11 Copilot is set to grace our screens in a preview release this June. Brace yourself for a future where Windows becomes your indispensable partner in conquering the digital realm. We are very excited to see what’s to come!

Satya also unveiled in his keynote session at this year’s Microsoft Build that they are very excited to launch the Copilot stack. Microsoft has constructed a unified architectural stack for all Copilots, enabling developers to create their very own Copilots tailored to their applications. This comprehensive solution encompasses AI infrastructure, foundation models, AI orchestration, and extends all the way to the core of your Copilot, ensuring unparalleled extensibility.

Microsoft is also taking the concept of extensibility to new heights by establishing a common framework across various platforms, including ChatGPT, Bing Chat, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and the entire suite of Microsoft Copilots. Developers can now harness the power of writing a single plugin that can reach billions of users across these diverse surfaces. This unified extensibility model is a game-changer, opening doors to vast opportunities for developers to create experiences that transcend boundaries.

Here’s a sneak peak of what’s to come:

The future is brimming with endless possibilities as the Copilot revolution unfolds. Brace yourself for a journey where innovation knows no bounds!

5. Azure AI Studio

Get ready to be blown away by Azure AI Studio, the ultimate toolchain for developers to unleash their potential in building intelligent AI apps and Copilots. This comprehensive platform covers every step of the development lifecycle, empowering you to train your own models, ground them using your own data, and harness a multitude of powerful features.

Microsoft’s dedication to AI safety is obvious as Satya revealed the tireless efforts invested by Microsoft over the past five years. They have developed a set of principles that form the bedrock of their engineering processes, ensuring the integration of AI safety across their entire stack.

Azure AI Studio boasts an array of cutting-edge features designed to support security, compliance, and responsible AI practices. From the testing feature that aids security and compliance to the responsible AI dashboard and prompt flow grounding, every aspect is meticulously crafted to empower you in building safe and robust models. The inclusion of provenance features, including media support in Bing and Designer, further enhances the transparency and traceability of your application.

When it comes to deployment, Microsoft’s commitment to safety shines through. Drawing from their experience with the launch of Bing chat, they have curated a comprehensive set of features available to all developers. By leveraging the AI safety service during deployment, you can ensure the utmost safety and security of your models. Additionally, the ability to monitor model drift guarantees continuous and secure deployment.

With Azure AI Studio, you can rest assured that safety comes first. This exciting and reassuring platform equips every developer with the tools and capabilities needed to build applications that push the boundaries of AI while prioritizing the well-being and security of users.

To sum it all up, Microsoft Build 2023 showcased a series of major AI and Bing Chat announcements that are set to shape the future of development. The event demonstrated Microsoft’s commitment to empowering developers and revolutionising the way we interact with technology. From integrating Bing into ChatGPT to introducing plugins for seamless integration across platforms, Microsoft is fostering interoperability and convenience for users and developers alike. The arrival of Copilot in Windows marks a significant milestone, as Windows 11 becomes the first operating system to adopt such a comprehensive AI assistant, promising enhanced productivity and creativity. As well as this, Azure AI Studio showcases Microsoft’s dedication to AI safety and offers developers a comprehensive toolchain to build intelligent AI apps. As we look to the future, the possibilities are limitless, and the Copilot revolution looks like it promises innovation that goes beyond normal limits. It sounds like we should be getting ready for an exciting journey where AI takes centre stage!

If you made it this far then thank you for joining us on this roundup of the major AI and Bing Chat announcements from Microsoft Build 2023! We hope this guide has provided you with valuable insights into the ground-breaking developments and opportunities that lie ahead. With these advancements, developers can push the boundaries of what’s possible and create transformative experiences for users across diverse platforms. As we venture into this exciting future, we invite you to stay tuned and witness the remarkable evolution of technology through the lens of Microsoft’s visionary approach.

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Inside Amazon's rush to respond to ChatGPT. 'Amazon must be really scared about being late on all of this.'

Earlier this year, as ChatGPT took the world by storm, Amazon managers asked employees to come up with ideas for how to use AI chatbot technology to improve their products and workflow.

Some of those ideas were shared in an internal document, titled "Generative AI-ChatGPT Impact and Opportunity Analysis." It lists 67 potential use cases for ChatGPT and similar apps across a wide range of teams at Amazon, according to a copy obtained by Insider.

This is just one of the ways the company is rushing to respond to the hottest consumer tech to appear in years. By rights, Amazon should have been the one releasing an offering like this. It created the internet's first real commercial hit by selling books online in the 1990s. The Kindle revolutionized reading. Alexa and Echo speakers brought voice computing to the masses. And AWS created the cloud-computing industry upon which ChatGPT now stands.

All the more galling: Its bitter neighborhood rival Microsoft owns a huge chunk of ChatGPT's creator, OpenAI, and is busy weaving the underlying technology throughout its products and services.

"Amazon must be really scared about being late on all of this," one Amazon employee said in an interview. "Everything is 'ChatGPT,' and it feels incredibly rushed." They asked to remain anonymous so they could speak freely without upsetting the company.

Officially, Amazon is unperturbed but moving fast. In an email to Insider, a company representative said the company had been using machine learning and artificial intelligence for more than 25 years in "virtually everything we do."

"Amazon is leading the industry in AI by every meaningful measure, and our AWS machine learning business has the most customers, partners, and capabilities of any cloud," the representative added in an email. "Though still in its very early days, we are investing in generative AI across all of our businesses and have a significant number of unique capabilities that we already offer or that we're working hard to bring to customers in the near future."

Inside the company, a frank discussion has been flowing about what's missing and the resources that Amazon can tap to respond.

"Amazon does not have a publicly or internally available product that looks and works exactly like ChatGPT, although we offer products that use language models to generate and analyze content like ChatGPT does," another employee wrote in an internal forum dedicated to ChatGPT. Insider reviewed a copy of this.

The company is furiously seeking other ways to take advantage of the AI chatbot boom. That includes crowdsourcing productivity-boosting ideas, starting new generative-AI-powered projects, and sharing sales talking points that leverage its existing cloud services.

Employees have even proposed integrating ChatGPT into a core part of Amazon's creative process. Before work on a product begins, the company requires developers to write a hypothetical press release and FAQ announcement describing the offering. Some staff recently suggested that ChatGPT could help write these famous six-page documents.

Other ideas shared in the impact-and-opportunity analysis document cover everything from auto-generating software code and marketing materials to providing better customer support.

Sales team members said they could use it to quickly scour financial reports from Amazon and its competitors to find their strategic goals. It could also help with customer-sentiment analysis, as ChatGPT can "decipher how customers really feel about a product," it said.

Customer-support reps expect ChatGPT to give customers "tailored responses that are more likely to lead to conversions and increased satisfaction." Seller questions to its marketplace can also be better handled. Some said it could even predict best-seller items and explore "what makes a video content a hit."

For AWS, it can automatically calculate cloud service costs for the customer. And the Fresh grocery team hopes to one day be able to provide a shopping list based on a recipe with ChatGPT's help, it said.

ChatGPT can "help troubleshoot" and "increase our productivity in the long run by reducing manual work needed," the document explained.

To be sure, Amazon is unlikely to rely on ChatGPT for major customer-facing products. The tech giant is one of the few companies capable of training their own large AI models, and it's already built some. AWS is also a key cloud partner helping other businesses create their own models.

Amazon lawyers have previously warned employees to judiciously use ChatGPT at work. While the use of the AI chatbot is permitted, staff members are barred from sharing confidential information with ChatGPT, such as internal emails or source code. The same rules apply to the new Microsoft Bing search engine that uses ChatGPT's technology, an internal document said.

Some managers told Insider that Amazon employees were heavily discouraged from using ChatGPT at work and that real-time alerts would notify them if a team member used the chatbot on a work computer.

It's also unclear how many of the ideas shared in the document will turn into actual projects. But some already appear to be in the works. At least 11 internal projects have reached the prototyping stage, one of the documents said.

One of the ideas was a ChatGPT-type search bar for Amazon shoppers. "Create a conversational interface to guide [users] to purchase products online," the document said. "The assistant can explain pros and cons between different brands, and cite and summarize user reviews, and moreover give a personalized product purchasing guide/experience."

Later, Amazon posted job openings that suggested a major overhaul of its search bar with ChatGPT-like features. Bloomberg previously reported about the job posts.

One person wrote that a security-automation tool using ChatGPT-like features was at its planning stage. An engineering tool that can quickly answer AWS-related questions will also soon enter the prototype building stage, it said.

Some employees said ChatGPT was more advanced than similar machine-learning services offered by Amazon. One person wrote that Amazon Comprehend, a natural-language-processing service, feels "very cumbersome" compared with ChatGPT in turning survey data into more meaningful insights. Amazon Lex, a tool that helps build chatbots, can become "too generic" and "boring" compared with other services, another comment said.

Amazon is using other channels to collect employee ideas, too. One of this year's internal hackathons was titled "re:Generate" and drew roughly 140 participants, according to an internal email viewed by Insider.

"Since generative AI is all the rage right now, it will be included in the themes, and there will be a special award for the project that best demonstrates generative AI," the email said.

The idea that won the "Best use of Generative AI" award from the hackathon was a smart assistant using large language models to improve the Alexa device-setup process, the email said. Instead of the current manual setup, which is "complex and error-prone," the new assistant will be able to answer common questions about WiFi connection or lightbulb integrations with a "small paragraph of relevant content," it said. Ideas from hackathons don't always turn into actual products, and it's unclear whether Amazon has started work on this feature yet.

Amazon has recently released a new AI-building platform Bedrock and its own foundational model called Titan. It's also working on a slew of consumer apps with ChatGPT-like features, including an updated Alexa voice assistant and a new home robot project called Burnham, as Insider previously reported.

Employees are still curious about Amazon's response to ChatGPT and generative AI, frequently bringing up the topic in internal town-hall meetings.

At a March internal staff meeting for the cloud division, one employee asked AWS CEO Adam Selipsky what the company's response to ChatGPT was and how AWS planned to "embrace this new paradigm." Selipsky, without offering specifics, said "there's a ton happening across all of Amazon, not just AWS," according to a transcript of the meeting.

Jassy was asked a similar question during a separate companywide all-hands meeting in March. He highlighted Amazon's deep expertise in machine learning and AI but also noted that the latest generative-AI apps had made it "much more accessible" and "much easier to use." He also said that Amazon's top leadership team, called the S-team, was "very excited about it" and that generative AI was a "big area of focus for us."

"I would tell you," Jassy said at the meeting, a recording of which was obtained by Insider, "that in every single one of the businesses and customer experiences in which you work, I believe that you will have transformative generative-AI models as a key part of the customer experience moving forward."

Do you work at Amazon? Got a tip?

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