If you wanted to previously find an image that perfectly matched what you saw in your head online, you had to type in a wordy search inquiry. You’d hit send and hope you find the perfect match from the billions of images out there.

Now, that mental snapshot can be crafted in seconds by artificial intelligence and sometimes it’s even better than you could imagine.

“We want to solve a big problem that everyone has, which is roughly half of the searches today are going unanswered,” said Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s consumer chief marketing officer. “But with A.I., we can now start to answer more and more of those questions.”

Microsoft invested $10 billion in Open A.I., the artificial intelligence research laboratory responsible for text-based ChatGPT and image generator DALL-E. It recently combined its powers with its search engine Bing. Not only will it store the searches, it will use third-party apps like Open Table and the breadth of the internet to give you simplified answers. Think of it as the modern version of Ask Jeeves, but it actually works, Mehdi said.

“You can just talk to it like an everyday person, and the A.I. does all the work and comes back with simple answers,” he explained.

When you describe something to Bing through its chat function and ask for an image, it will generate it for you using DALL-E technology in seconds -- even if it’s something that never existed like Baby Yoda sharing a drink with Boba Fett in Mos Eisley.

Or you can ask Bing to come up with reference images to give to a contractor. Mehdi recently queried for pictures of a mid-Century modern-style bar to serve as inspiration for an upcoming house remodeling project.

“It's going to make people in their current jobs that much more productive, that much more effective, than we're seeing that today,” Mehdi said. “Second, it’s going to create a new set of jobs where people can learn how to take advantage of the A.I.”

If what you need can only be described in words, Bing and ChatGPT combine together to give you answers with context. Instead of having to research individual items and draw your own conclusions, it will compile the results for you. It can be especially useful when it comes to travel.

“Travel planning takes multiple weeks, people taking lots of notes, lots of tabs, having to compile it together,” he said. “What you can see here is in one chat session, you can literally just ask multiple questions like we were saying, “Hey, give me a day-by-day itinerary. Tell me about the festivals. What should I wear? What should I know about the customs of coming in?”

At the end of the day, it will save us time.

“We're automating the mundane tasks, the things you don't want us to do so it frees you up to do the really interesting work,” Mehdi said. 

Share:
More In Technology
California Starts Largest U.S. Food Waste Recycling Program
California's new composting law will affect what residents do in their kitchens. As of this week, Californians will have to recycle excess food in an effort to reduce emissions caused by food waste. Cities and counties will turn recycled food into compost or use it as a renewable energy source. California's new law is the largest mandatory residential food waste recycling program in the country. Rachel Wagoner, Director of the California Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery called the law 'the biggest change to trash' since recycling started in the 1980s. She joined Cheddar Climate to discuss.
Cars Made to Order Online Could Improve Supply Chain, Might Be Here to Stay in U.S.
Like the big changeover to e-commerce for retail, the COVID-19 pandemic has moved car buying trends to the digital showroom. Karl Brauer, an executive analyst at iSeeCars.com, joined Cheddar to talk about the "mindset shift" in consumers and businesses to order-based systems in the United States (something more common in other countries). While more than 60 percent of consumers still prefer to visit dealerships in-person, Brauer noted that consumers are better off ordering a car to spec, which would also help improve supply constraints. "It's really bad right now to be building cars and not really knowing who's going to buy them or when they're going to sell," he said. Manufacturing a car to order would maximize the efficiency of obtaining materials through the supply chain rather than "shotgunning it" at dealerships.
What the Elizabeth Holmes Fraud Conviction Means for Silicon Valley Startups
Mark MacDougall, attorney and former prosecutor with the criminal division of the Department of Justice, joined Cheddar to discuss the fraud conviction of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. MacDougall addressed Holmes' stance that what she did was no different than any other Silicon Valley startup's approach to business and how this will shake out for the industry going forward. "I can't imagine it doesn't have some salutary effect on entrepreneurs and people involved in new ventures going forward," he said. Holmes was found guilty on 4 of 11 counts, with each carrying a maximum of 20 years in prison, but MacDougall explained that the lengthy prison sentences were unlikely.
Sports Betting Sees Nationwide Boom
Sports betting is going mainstream in the United States. Dozens of states have legalized it, California is set to do the same this year. Arizona, which legalized sports betting in September, set new national records for gambling in its first months. Daniel Graetzer, CEO of Maximbet, joins Cheddar News to discuss what's next for the booming industry.
Predictions for Future Trends in the Healthcare Industry; The Future of Wearable Health Tech
On this episode of Cheddar Reveals, Dr. Anita Gupta, Adjunct assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, shares her forecast for the healthcare industry in 2022; Waseem Asghar, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Computer & Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Florida Atlantic University, breaks down the latest progress, trends, and innovations in wearable health tech; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Hacking our Biome.'
The Future of Wearable Health Tech
Waseem Asghar, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Computer & Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Florida Atlantic University, joins Cheddar Reveals to break down the latest progress, trends, and innovations in wearable health tech.
Ford to Double Production of Electric F-150 Lightning Truck as Demand Soars
Ford is accelerating production of its highly anticipated electric F-150 Lightning with an expectation to pump out 150,000 vehicles annually to meet surging demand. Kumar Galhotra, Ford president of the Americas and international markets group, joined Cheddar to detail the plan to get more customers behind the wheel and to become the top of the competition in the electric vehicle space. "Within the next 24 months, we will have capacity, globally, to deliver 600,000 battery-electric vehicles per year," he said.
Load More