Meta AI assistant uses Microsoft Bing Search results

Meta AI, announced today, is a new conversational assistant “you can interact with like a person,” according to the company.

Microsoft Bing is working with Meta to “integrate Bing into Meta AI’s chat experiences enabling more timely and up-to-date answers with access to real-time search information,” according to Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president and consumer chief marketing officer, in a company blog post.

This includes bringing Bing to Meta AI and Meta’s 28 other new AI characters in Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.

What Microsoft is saying. If a request requires fresh information, Meta AI will automatically ask Bing to get the chat answer, according to Jordi Ribas, Microsoft CVP, head of engineering and product for Bing.

• “Many people ask me whether LLMs will make web search engines less valuable, but the opposite is actually the case. LLMs make web search more critical than ever, since the combination of LLMs + web search is what produces fresher and more accurate chat results,” Ribas posted on X.

Why we care. Search continues to expand and is now essentially everything, everywhere, all at once. This integration means Meta’s AI assistant will have access to real-time information, which in theory should produce better chat results via conversational search. And coming soon: businesses will be able to create their own AIs.

What Meta AI looks like. Here’s a GIF Meta shared:

More Meta AIs with Bing. Meta announced it is releasing 28 additional AIs, all with unique personas, that users can interact with on its platforms. Meta said it plans to bring Bing search to these AI characters, many of which are based on celebrities (e.g., Tom Brady, Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, Mr Beast) “in the coming months.”

Bing’s role. Meta AI is powered by a custom model that leverages technology from Llama 2 and other large language models. However, Meta’s LLMs are only trained on information prior to 2023, which would lead to dated responses. This is where Bing’s real-time web results will come into play.

More to come. Meta promises that it is working on AIs for businesses and creators that will be available next year. From Meta:

• “Businesses will also be able to create AIs that reflect their brand’s values and improve customer service experiences. From small businesses looking to scale to large brands wanting to enhance communications, AIs can help businesses engage with their customers across our apps. We’re launching this in alpha and will scale it further next year.”