Microsoft is moving ahead with the development of its AI-powered chatbot. Despite the various problems that the Bing chatbot has shown in its first weeks, which made Microsoft restrict its use for a few days, the company has a clear long-term plan that involves the insertion of advertising in conversations and, now, the arrival of AI to mobile apps and integration with another of its products: Skype.
The Bing chatbot is now available both in the mobile version of the Microsoft Edge browser and in a Bing app of its own, which can be tested by those who signed up for the waiting list and have been accepted.
“Available today on iOS and Android, the Bing mobile app offers a refreshed look and feel. Tapping the Bing icon at the bottom will open a chat session, where you can participate in the same way as from the desktop version. Ask simple or complex questions and receive answers and quotes. Choose how you want your answers to be displayed: bullets, text or simplified answers. Explore the Bing chat experience to refine your query or compose an email, poem or list,” Microsoft explains on its blog.
According to The Verge, who has already been able to test the chatbot on cell phones, the functionality of this conversational AI is the same as the web version, being somewhat “quieter” than in its beginnings, when it was a bit more rambunctious than usual. The other important aspect of the app, voice control, is acceptable, although the chatbot response is quite slow, and the female voice is unnatural and somewhat robotic.
In addition to launching Bing’s AI on mobile, Microsoft has also integrated it into another of its products where it will give a lot of play: Skype. As if it were just another contact on your list, in Skype you will be able to chat directly with Bing or even add it to conversations with other people, so you could be talking to your friends about a getaway next weekend and ask Bing for a recommendation.
