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Microsoft has spent a lot of time and energy over the past few months adding generative AI capabilities to all of its products, especially its long-struggling Bing search engine. Now, the company is working to merge this fast-moving and sometimes volatile new technology with the age-old thorn in advertising.
In a blog post earlier this week, Microsoft VP Yusuf Mehdi said the company is “considering placing ads in the chat experience.” It’s one of several things the company does, and “shares advertising revenue with partners whose content contributes to chat responses.” We’re looking at ways to get Bing Chat to show the source of its work, similar to how the engine shows source links below snippets of information it thinks might answer the question you asked.
One of Microsoft’s experimental formats for highlighting information sources in Bing Chat.
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Sharing ad revenue with partners is an attempt to address the pressing supply and demand problem for AI chatbots that dig the internet to find answers to user queries. Someone must create the content that Bing Chat uses to create answers. As AI chatbots make content creation less profitable, they have less information to sift through, making it more difficult for them to do what they’re trying to do.
The problem with Bing Chat ads isn’t necessarily Microsoft’s stated intent (to drive traffic to content creators), but it’s already about the types of editorial content and ads Microsoft chooses to emphasize in its existing software and services. I know.
When you open Edge’s default news homepage or Windows 11’s Widgets menu, you’ll often see high-to-medium quality news from reputable outlets.but much more often, and especially If you’re not signed into your Microsoft account and haven’t made the effort to customize the look of your feed, these areas are jam-packed with weird lists, celebrity gossip, health care, and financial clickbait. ) Selection subject Star Trek: Picard spoiler.
Windows 11 widget screen. There is a lot of poor quality information here. In particular, when you sign in to your Microsoft account and view your feed without customizing it,
Andrew Cunningham
The quality of these articles is not necessarily that of Microsoft hindranceit’s the kind that’s been successful in a hassle-free, SEO-driven, ad-supported media environment. But regardless of why they exist, there is little user value to Edge or Windows by viewing articles of this sort. It’s hard to imagine this kind of content adding much value to Bing Chat, both for users and publishers.
Another problem, especially with Microsoft, is ad fatigue.
for Windows 11[検索]menu or[ウィジェット]Ads that appear in menus, within the Microsoft Store, and even on the lock screen that appears before you log in to your computer are an inevitable part of the Microsoft experience. The company has long promoted its own products and services (Edge and Bing, but also OneDrive and Microsoft 365) in Windows 11’s Settings app and Windows Explorer, and tested them in the operating system’s Sign In menu as well. doing. You will be reminded regularly to switch to using Edge as your default browser and Bing as your default search engine, especially after major updates. Several third-party apps such as Spotify, Prime Video, TikTok, and Instagram are all automatically downloaded to your new Windows 11 PC when connected to the internet.
Taken individually, none of these would make Windows unusable. Most of them can be ignored, uninstalled or disabled. But overall, they’re a pain, and it feels like the company is constantly testing new ways to add another layer on top of all the existing ones. We’ve done a lot of work over the years to have a visually unified version of . Too bad it comes with so many ads, annoying trending news feeds, and reminders to use other Microsoft products.
