The tech giant also unveiled its new in-house text-to-image generator, MAI-Image-1. More recently, Microsoft's AI CEO, Mustafa Suleyman, announced that the custom image generator is now available in Bing Image Creator and Copilot Audio Expressions. However, it's worth noting that the model isn't available in the EU, though it is expected to ship soon.

According to the executive, MAI-Image-1 excels at generating images of natural scenes, artistic lighting/photorealistic detail, and food, which sets it apart from the vast majority of larger but slower models.

That said, you can now select MAI-Image-1 as your preferred model when trying to create images on the Bing Image Creator app. However, OpenAI's DALL-E 3 image technology and GPT-4o are still available as options on the platform.

FAQ

Follow Windows Central on Google News to keep our latest news, insights, and features at the top of your feeds!

Welcome to another episode of the Windows Central Podcast! On this week's episode,, Daniel and Zac discuss the big Windows reorg news and what it means for the future. Is Windows 12 around the corner?

Plus, the team talk about Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X2 chips, Windows 10 reaching EOL, the impact of annual feature updates, and the latest changes to Microsoft's 365 and Game Pass subscriptions.

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Timestamps

• 04:33: Windows 10 end of support updates
• 09:32: Windows 7 gains market share?
• 20:52 Windows 11 25H2 availability
• 23:50: Windows reorg and the future
• 01:23:50 Microsoft 365 Premium
• 01:27:52 Xbox Game Pass changes

Hosts:

• Daniel Rubino
• Zac Bowden

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For the best part of a decade, Windows 10 stood as the world's most popular operating system, at least until Windows 11 surpassed its traffic earlier this year. Ten years is a relatively standard time span for OS support, but this end-of-life scenario is particularly unique, given how many PCs might not meet Microsoft's minimum requirements for an upgrade.

This page will be updated as frequently as necessary, leading up to the cutoff date on October 14, 2025, and in the following days where appropriate. Changes to Microsoft's policies aren't expected, and the ESU program will likely remain as the best option for those who would prefer to stay on Windows 10.

Follow Windows Central on Google News to keep our latest news, insights, and features at the top of your feeds!

On this week's episode of the Windows Central Podcast, Dan and Zac discuss the latest with Windows 11: new updates for Paint and Notepad, plus Windows 10 EOL and Consumer Reports asking Microsoft to extend support.

Also on the agenda, Intel & NVIDIA are teaming up to create new chips fused with RTX GPUs, and Meta launches it first Ray Ban Display glasses with AI built-in. Should Microsoft do the same?

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Timestamps

• 02:24: Windows 11 news
• 17:11: Handheld Gaming Mode in-depth look
• 26:40: Windows 10 EOL
• 39:07: Intel & NVIDIA partnership
• 50:38: Meta Ray Ban Display and should Microsoft make its own Copilot wearable?

Hosts:

• Daniel Rubino
• Zac Bowden

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In this week’s episode of the Windows Central Podcast, Daniel and Zac dive deep into Microsoft’s bold vision for the future of Windows in its new 2030 Vision series.

We’ll break down Microsoft CVP David Weston’s claims about the end of mouse-and-keyboard computing and the rise of multimodal, AI-powered interaction. We'll discuss how voice commands, contextual awareness, and agentic systems will play a part.

We’ll also explore how GPT-5 is set to permeate Microsoft’s ecosystem, the implications of WinUI going open source, and share hands-on impressions of the Surface Laptop 7 and our hopes and dreams for the Surface Laptop 8.

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Hosts:

• Daniel Rubino
• Zac Bowden

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A press release about the new AI search engine states that the tool is designed to "exponentially increase the amount of information available to its users."

Truth Search AI is now in beta testing on the web version of Truth Social. The Android and iOS versions of the app should support the Truth Search AI beta soon.

“We’re excited to partner with Truth Social to bring powerful AI to an audience with important questions. Curiosity is the engine of change, and Perplexity’s AI is developed to empower curiosity by delivering direct, reliable answers with transparent citations that allow anyone to dig deeper," said Perplexity Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko.

Responses to the news will likely be mixed depending on political leanings and thoughts about AI. At least one Reddit thread was full of jokes, complaints, and warnings.

"I'd rather bing," said Reddit user Old_Channel44. That was one of the kinder, more light-hearted comments in a thread responding to Trump Media’s announcement.

Others said they will no longer use Perplexity now that the company has partnered with Trump media.

At the time of publication, few outlets have covered the news, so it may be a while before we can see a broad public reaction to the launch of Truth Search AI.

What is Perplexity?

Perplexity is a search engine powered by AI. Like many competing products, Perplexity searches the web for real-time information to respond to search queries.

Perplexity was founded in 2022 and was among the first wave of search engines to integrate AI. While AI-generated or assisted responses are commonplace now, Perplexity was in on the trend early.

A Q&A page from the makers of Perplexity emphasizes that the search engine provides conversational answers and that results are "backed by verifiable sources." That claim has been disputed by several outlets, which I discuss more below.

Perplexity supports multiple AI models, including GPT models from OpenAI, Anthropic's Claude, and DeepSeek R1. You can choose the specific model you'd like to respond to your queries.

Perplexity promotes its search engine as an "intelligent research assistant" that helps you get answers without requiring many clicks. The basic idea is to answer questions with summaries backed by sources rather than just providing a list of links.

As opposed to having a chat-focused interface like ChatGPT and Copilot, Perplexity presents information in the form of summaries and longer answers.

Perplexity has a free version that supports quick searches. It also has a paid pro mode that uses GPT-4.1, Claude 4.0 Sonnet, Gemini 2.5 Pro, or Sonar (Perplexity's own model).

There are Perplexity apps on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. You can also use the tool through the web.

Perplexity plagiarism controversy

The very features that Perplexity hypes as differentiators between its tool and other AI search engines have also drawn criticism and accusations of plagiarism.

In June 2024, WIRED called Perplexity a "Bullshit Machine" and claimed the search engine stole content and scraped websites without following the Robots Exclusion Protocol, which is a web standard that can designate certain parts of websites should not be scraped by bots.

The same report outlined how Perplexity's results range from accurate paraphrasing to "summarizing stories inaccurately and with minimal attribution." In a more extreme case, Perplexity falsely claimed that WIRED reported a specific police officer had committed a crime.

Ironically, Perplexity was accused of plagiarizing the WIRED report discussing plagiarism.

Forbes has also accused Perplexity of plagiarism.

Perplexity is not the only AI tool to be accused of plagiarism or sharing false information. OpenAI and Microsoft have faced several lawsuits about copyright infringement.

On this week's episode of the Windows Central Podcast, Dan and Zac take a look back at Windows 10 as it celebrates its 10th anniversary and discussing how it's evolved over the years.

We'll also get into Microsoft's strong financial performance and the recent company layoffs. We've got a lot to say about the new Copilot features in Microsoft Edge and what we've seen with Copilot Vision on smartphones.

Plus, we'll talk about the state of the Surface line, a couple of very special limited-edition laptops, and the upcoming GPT-5 integration into Copilot. We'll also be covering the latest on Windows 10 security updates, Adobe's new ARM-native beta apps, and a great deal on the Asus ZenBook A14.

And of course, we'll be discussing the future of AI and its potential impact on our lives!

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Hosts:

• Daniel Rubino
• Zac Bowden

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But if you scroll down the earnings report, you'll see that Bing continues to gain traction and makes quite a bit of money. Microsoft's search and news advertising revenue grew by $1.6 billion over the last year.

If you exclude traffic and acquisition costs, search and news advertising revenue grew 21% year-over-year.

Microsoft CVP Jordi Ribas took to LinkedIn to discuss the growth of the company's search engine.

"This is now the fourth consecutive year in which Bing and Edge took market share. Below I’m sharing the latest numbers reported publicly by Comscore (US) and StatCounter (Worldwide) for several known search engines since we shipped Bing Chat and Copilot back in 2023," said Ribas.

As noted by the CVP, Bing's fate shifted greatly when Microsoft released Bing Chat, which was later rebranded as Copilot.

Does Bing make money?

Bing has been the butt of jokes since it launched. Family Guy took a playful jab at the Bing Maps car, and many mocked the fact that Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man used Bing.

But Microsoft is a business. If a service like Bing performed poorly for long enough, the tech giant would cut it off.

Despite its status as a meme, Bing makes a lot of money. Microsoft CVP and CFO Phil Ockenden explained back in February 2023 that even a small gain in search market share potentially translates to $2 billion in revenue.

"New users, higher engagement, and increased advertising rates will fuel revenue growth. As Amy mentioned earlier, the digital advertising TAM is over half a trillion dollars, and within that, approximately 40% is in search advertising. For every one point of share gain in the search advertising market, it’s a $2 billion revenue opportunity for our advertising business," said Ockenden (emphasis added).

If that ratio has held up, Microsoft has made several billion dollars from just the sliver of growth shown on charts from StatCounter. Bing held 2.97% of the global search market share in 2023 and is now at 3.96%.

Bing is more successful on desktop. The search engine's global desktop market share rose from 8.58% to 11.8% between 2023 and 2025, according to StatCounter.

Those gains appear to come largely at the expense of Google, which has lost 5 percentage points in global desktop market share. Even when looking at search engine market share for all devices worldwide, Google dipped from 92.38% in 2023 to 89.71% in 2025.

Is Google getting worse?

Bing Search has improved steadily over the years, and integrating with AI appears to have increased the quality of search results. But when you're battling a monolith like Google, taking away market share requires more than improving your own product.

Convincing people to switch search engines is complicated. Entire research studies have been performed just to see what it takes to get people to switch to Bing.

Microsoft has controversially used aggressive tactics to promote Bing, but the search engine may get its biggest gains from its rival degrading.

Several factors have affected Google's market share since 2023, including anti-trust cases that forced Android to offer alternatives. Google has also been mocked for terrible search results during the early days of AI integration.

Last year, Google recommended adding glue to pizza sauce to make sauce tackier. The search engine also suggested eating rocks at one point.

Google's search results are also full of AI-generated content and Reddit posts that lack context.

Our Senior Editor Jez Corden took a closer look at why Google is losing users to Bing earlier this year.

On this week's episode of the Windows Central Podcast, Daniel and Zac discuss the big Windows and Xbox news that broke over the weekend: The Xbox Ally is official, and with it comes major changes to Windows for gaming handhelds. The crew also talks about WWDC and Apple's new Liquid Glass, and how we think it's just a worse version of Aero Glass from Windows Vista. We also talk about the new iPadOS updates, and how they could pose a threat to low- and mid-range Windows PCs.

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• Daniel Rubino
• Zac Bowden

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On this week's episode of the Windows Central Podcast, Daniel and Zac discuss the current state of Windows 11 on gaming handhelds, and how failures like Windows Core OS and Windows CorePC have put Microsoft on the back foot in this new mobile category. Also on the agenda: Windows 11 Start menu designs, Bing Video Creator, and AI leading us down a lonely path.

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• Zac Bowden

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"Bing Video Creator transforms your text prompts into short videos. Just describe what you want to see and watch your vision come to life" says Microsoft in a blog post announcing the new feature. "Bing Video Creator represents our efforts to democratize the power of AI video generation. We believe creativity should be effortless and accessible to help you satisfy your answer-seeking process."

The tool seems pretty straightforward. Simply open the Bing app, select the video creator, and describe the kind of video you want to see. Bing will then take a few minutes to process the query and begin generating the video using Sora, letting you know once the video is ready.

The company says Bing Video Creator is free, which is notable because Sora normally costs at least $20 a month via OpenAI's ChatGPT Plus subscription. Microsoft says video will be limited to 5 seconds in length and in a 9:16 format, with 16:9 video coming soon.

Bing Video Creator is rolling out starting today via the Bing app for Android and iOS, and is expected to rollout on PCs via the Bing website in the coming weeks.

Curiously, this functionality is not currently present in Microsoft's own Copilot AI tool, which is what powers much of the AI features in Bing. Perhaps this is a desparate attempt to increase usage numbers around the Bing app and service, but it is frustrating that it's not available on Copilot.

Hopefully, Copilot will gain its own video generation features in the coming weeks. In the meantime, are you interested in generating AI videos using the Bing app? Let us know in the comments.

According to Microsoft:

"Bing Search APIs will be retired on  August 11, 2025. Any existing instances of Bing Search APIs will be decommissioned completely, and the product will no longer be available for usage or new customer signup."

As such, third-party app developers will need to find an alternative replacement for Bing Search APIs beyond the cutoff date, as they won't have access to Microsoft's search results to power their services.

Interestingly, Microsoft urges affected parties to use “grounding with Bing Search as part of Azure AI Agents” as a plausible alternative. It's worth noting that Azure AI Agents still use Bing Search on the user's behalf to generate responses.

As Wired reports, the vast majority of customers using Bing Search APIs, including DuckDuckGo, will continue accessing the service beyond the looming cutoff date.

As such, it's mostly smaller app developers that are likely to be left with the short end of the stick, especially if their plan was to use Bing Search APIs to return URLs rather than text-based responses to queries.

Microsoft declined to comment to Wired on whether the decision to close these APIs is related to reducing costs, but it comes soon after Microsoft announced plans to lay off 3% of its workforce, reportedly targeting management first.

Either way, a continued push towards artificial intelligence, particularly agentic AI, is on brand for Microsoft's continued strategies and isn't a total surprise. Nevertheless, it will likely come as disappointing news for smaller, independent developers, who may have to make significant changes to their projects.

On this week's episode of the Windows Central Podcast, Daniel and Zac discuss Microsoft's latest wave of Surface PCs, our initial impressions of the new Surface Pro 12-inch, and how they fit into the lineup. They also discuss a whole bunch of new Windows 11 features that are coming later this year, including a new AI agent in Settings, the updated Start menu, and more.

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Meanwhile, a Microsoft project manager mocked Windows 11 publicly and Bing received a backhanded compliment after people were paid to use the search engine and determined "Bing was not as bad as [they] thought it was."

Xbox price increases

The Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and a wave of Xbox controllers are now much more expensive. Microsoft announced the price increases for hardware and confirmed that some games will go up in price later this year.

In addition to disappointing fans by raising prices, Microsoft also gave up its value proposition. An Xbox Series S is now more expensive than a PlayStation 5 Slim Digital when comparing models with the same amount of storage.

I saw several jokes online about how Xbox Series X consoles purchased a few years ago are now classed as appreciating assets.

With former Xbox exclusives increasingly becoming available on other platforms and the recent price increases on all Xbox consoles, it's difficult to recommend an Xbox to anyone right now.

"Bing was not as bad as I thought it was"

Google uses monopolistic practices to leverage dominance in search in other markets, according to a recent Department of Justice (DOJ) filing. The tech giant was accused of robbing businesses and consumers of "their right to choose among competing services," according to the filing.

As Google sits in court over the claims, researchers shared findings from a study that appear to back up the DOJ's statements.

The study, titled Sources of Market Power in Web Search: Evidence from a Field Experiment, paid people to use Bing for two weeks. The participants were then given the choice to stick with Bing or go back to Google.

Around 22% of participants continued to use Bing. The academics behind the study also noticed that many do not switch away from whichever search engine is set as default, which is a core element of the ongoing DOJ case.

Microsoft employee mocks Windows 11

A Microsoft project manager drew criticism recently after mocking Windows 11. Merill Fernando took to X to share a meme about how returning to macOS after using Windows 11 was similar to going to space and returning to Earth.

While I credit the use of the Katy Perry meme, I was a bit surprised to see a Microsoft employee criticize Windows 11 so publicly. That being said, the internet backlash over the post was overblown in my opinion.

Reviews & Editorials

Each week our experts take a look at the latest gadgets, games, and accessories. Recently, our team reviewed the ASUS ROG Strix OLED 27 gaming monitor, which earned a perfect score. We also spent time with the Razer Pro Click V2 Vertical Edition and updated our reviews of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S to reflect the recent price increases for the consoles.

• Razer Pro Click V2 Vertical Edition ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
• SteelSeries Apex Pro Mini (Gen 3) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Xbox Series S review (Update) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Xbox Series X review (Update) ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
• Skin Deep ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• ASUS ROG Strix OLED 27 (XG27UCDMG) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• ASUS AirVision M1 ⭐⭐½
• HyperX Pulsefire Saga Pro Wireless ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Deals of the Week

Amazon Gaming Week may have wrapped up, but there are still some great deals. For example, one of the hottest laptop deals of the week was available at Walmart, not Amazon. A deal on the MSI Thin 15 discounts the laptop to $699.

Microsoft Copilot is powered by ChatGPT and other OpenAI technologies, and deeply integrates Bing Search to provide real time information from the world wide web. Microsoft announced during the earnings report that Bing had seen a 22% engagement rate growth year-over-year, likely driven by those aforementioned integrations.

Bing has long been the but of many 'a joke over the years, owing to direct comparisons with Google. Google search has long held dominance over the web, powering the vast majority of web-based businesses with its online ads platform and algorithmic content curation. Although, the latest data trends suggest that users are starting to look for real alternatives.

Data from both Statista and and StatCounter (via Tuta) show a Google in decline. Both platforms use differing methodologies for tallying market share, but StatCounter in particular offered something of a ill milestone for Google. StatCounter showed that Google had dipped below 90% market share this year, for the first time since its records began.

Statista has more granular data, offering Bing a very generous-looking upwards trend if you chart out the past ten years. Other search engines like Ecosia and DuckDuckGo have also seen some potent growth as well. But why is this happening?

It's unlikely to be any single thing impacting Google here, but we can explore some anecdotal possibilities as to what exactly is going on here.

• Google lost anti-trust cases relating to search, forcing it to offer users alternative search engines like Bing during the set up process on Android in some markets.
• Google has been flooding its search results with AI-generated content and reddit posts that often lack context. Gemini's inability to understand context has created a raft of hilarious memes mocking Google search.
• The rise of "ethical" search engines like Ecosia and DuckDuckGo have also given users a real alternative.
• Anecdotally, I've noticed an upswing in interest in Bing via Microsoft Rewards, which gives users points simply for entering search queries, which can then be exchanged for vouchers.
• European alternatives, such as Ecosia, may be seeing growth as countries impacted by Trump's tariff blitz campaign to reject American products. McDonalds recently suggested, for example, that it is seeing decreased sales in Europe due to anti-American sentiment. Could this be impacting Google too?
• Thanks perhaps in part to ChatGPT and Copilot, Bing Search is actually now offering the kind of quality standard Google previously set.
• General AI pollution on the web may be compelling users to break their Google habits to seek alternatives, subsequently discovering that other options aren't half bad.

Google still has upwards of 89.9% of global search engine market share, but a drop of a single point accounts for tens of millions of users, given that its overall user base accounts for roughly 5 billion people.

Windows' dominating market share has been overlooked in recent years due to the fact it is a fully open platform. Google, conversely, has been accused of using its monopoly over search to further promote its own products and services while undermining competitors — according to some anti-trust prosecutors at least.

Indeed, regulatory scrutiny of Google is ramping up, with U.S. anti-trust cases calling for the firm to spin off Google Chrome, Android, or perhaps even both.

It seems unlikely that Bing or any other search engine may challenge Google's dominating position any time soon, but if the downward trend continues, it could present Microsoft Bing with an utterly rare opportunity.

The study, titled Sources of Market Power in Web Search: Evidence from a Field Experiment, evaluates the economic forces that contribute to Google's large share of the search market.

Several findings from the study are interesting and relevant to ongoing court cases about web search. One key takeaway is that many people have never tried search engines other than Google.

For the study, academics from Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania, and MIT designed and performed an experiment with around 2,500 participants in which people were paid to use Bing instead of Google for two weeks. After that time, participants were given the choice to continue to use Bing or to go back to Google.

While the majority of participants stuck with Google, roughly 22% continued to use Bing. A follow-up survey was sent out to some participants, several of whom selected the option "Bing was better than I thought it would be" when they explained why they continued to use Microsoft's search engine.

According to the study's abstract:

1. Requiring Google users to make an active choice among search engines increases Bing’s market share by only 1.1 percentage points, implying that switching costs play a limited role.
2. Google users who accept our payment to try Bing for two weeks update positively about its relative quality, with 33 percent preferring to continue using it.
3. After changing the default from Google to Bing, many users do not switch back, consistent with persistent inattention.

The third point is particularly interesting because it lends validity to claims regarding why Google pays to have its search engine be the default on smartphone web browsers. Google is in the middle of a court case centered on whether the company holds an illegal monopoly in web search.

The study states that according to the model used, Bing would see a market share boost of 15 percentage points if frictions related to search engine choice were removed and user beliefs were corrected.

Is Google a monopoly?

While the study is entertaining to those who have followed Bing for years, it provides important insight into why people use Google as a search engine.

Google has recently come under scrutiny from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ).

Last year, a federal judge ruled that Google's payments to make the company's search engine the default on smartphone web browsers violated antitrust law.

A recent DOJ filing claims that Google uses monopolistic practices that leverage search dominance in other markets.

"Google has robbed consumers and businesses of a fundamental promise owed to the public—their right to choose among competing services," said the filing.

That case is still ongoing, and the DOJ’s statements were proposals, not legal requirements. Google disagrees with the April filing and the company found itself back in court as of April 21, 2025.

OpenAI has expressed interest in acquiring Chrome if Google is forced to sell it, though the company noted that many other parties would also be interested.

On this week's episode of the Windows Central Podcast, Daniel is back to give us the low-down at Microsoft's 50th anniversary event, the stuff we didn't see on stream, including protests from Microsoft employees. Zac and Dan also reflect on Copilot's announcements, and what might be next for the AI assistant. Surely, it's a Copilot-powered OS? We also discuss the latest on Windows 11, including Recall finally getting close to GA, and the latest on tariffs and how they're affecting the PC market.

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On this week's episode of the Windows Central Podcast, Zac sits down with Ben to chat Microsoft's big 50th anniversary event, which was more a Copilot event with the 50th stuff being kept for the people in-attendance in Redmond. Microsoft announced new memory, personalization, vision, research, and shopping features for Copilot. All designed to make Copilot more human.

Additionally, we discuss Microsoft's new Start menu for Windows 11 that was spotted hidden in recent preview builds, as well as our favorite versions of Windows and Windows apps to celebrate 50 years.

Hosts:

• Zac Bowden
• Ben Wilson

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One of the more interesting features announced today is Copilot Search in Bing. That tool combines traditional web search with generative search results.

Microsoft claims the addition "transforms web search." Copilot Search checks information from multiple websites to show more detailed and accurate responses through Bing.

Those search results will show citations and suggestions that lead people to more information on a topic.

The improved search functionality probably won't garner as much attention as Copilot gaining support for remembering details from conversations, but it is more important for many people. For many, Bing search is their first introduction to the Copilot brand.

Bringing together traditional search and generative AI should result in better responses to queries. Google is still the dominant search engine by far, but many complain about the results generated by Google search.

If Microsoft can use Copilot to make Bing a better tool for finding useful information, that would help the Bing brand substantially. The fact that Microsoft markets the resulting tool as "Copilot Search" is also handy because it appears to customers as something new rather than just an update to Bing.

Copilot used to be called Bing Chat, so any feature that combines AI and Bing search is a return to form for Microsoft. I think the Copilot name carries a better reputation than that of Bing, so the change made sense.

Microsoft is rolling out the initial versions of the new Copilot experiences today, but it will take some time for them to ship to everyone. Availability will also depend on your platform, market, and language.

On this week's episode of the Windows Central Podcast, Daniel and Zac discuss the current state of Windows on Arm, the Surface Laptop 7's high return rate, more details on the upcoming smaller Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, and the latest on Windows 11 and our first signs of 25H2.

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• Daniel Rubino
• Zac Bowden

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On this week's episode of the Windows Central Podcast, Daniel and Zac discuss Microsoft's upcoming April 4 event and speculate about what it could possibly announce, the latest from Windows 11 and Copilot, Apple Intelligence Siri being delayed, Xbox Project Kennan, and more!

Hosts:

• Daniel Rubino
• Zac Bowden

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In this week's exciting episode of the Windows Central Podcast, Daniel and Zac discuss the official death of Skype, our struggles as a podcast that has exclusively used Skype for almost a decade, and the latest from Copilot on Windows and future AI experiences in the OS. Also this week, we talk about Lenovo's latest weird PCs, the new MacBook Air and how we think it's a bad deal now that devices like the Surface Laptop 7 exist.

Hosts:

• Daniel Rubino
• Zac Bowden

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Last week, Windows 11 pirates gained a new and unlikely ally in Microsoft Copilot. This week, it's Copilot that has the new ally, but it's hardly a surprise.

Right now, if you search for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, or Gemini, Bing will show you a search bar that's a shortcut to Copilot.

"Copilot, Your AI companion," reads the element. Below that text is a text bar that lets you message Copilot.

The behavior, which was first spotted by Neowin, is the latest in a series of tactics by Microsoft to dissuade people from using competing services.

Earlier this year, Microsoft used a similar method to try to steer people away from Google. In January, searching for Google through Bing resulted in essentially a copy of the Google interface but that interface was powered by Bing.

Microsoft has since stopped trying to trick people into using Bing, but the company's leadership must have liked the idea. The new prompt to use Copilot is quite similar in how it tries to convert users searching for a competing service.

Desperate and deceptive? That's debatable.

Microsoft promoting its services through other Microsoft products has always been a point of contention. It's an interesting situation, since I know people who feel strongly about it but don't agree on whether it's an issue.

If your car got a flat tire and the repair shop you went to explained that the store also has breakdown coverage that you could get for a monthly fee, I doubt you'd be surprised or upset. But many, including myself, dislike when Microsoft promotes its other products while you use a Microsoft service.

There are two key differences between my tire shop analogy and Microsoft's approach: point of sale and scale.

If I go to a store and they try to sell me something, that's to be expected. If I'm using a product and it tries to sell me something, I'm probably disappointed.

Windows 11, Bing, and other Microsoft services are products. Searching for something through Bing isn't like me going to a store. It's using the product, which is more akin to driving on a tire.

Promoting Copilot through Bing when I search for Gemini is like my car suddenly displaying an ad for breakdown coverage while I’m driving.

Scale is also a factor here and in similar cases. Monopoly laws are in place, at least in part, to prevent companies from being able to use dominance in one area to gain an unfair advantage in another. That's why Microsoft had to split Teams from Office.

In the case of Bing promoting Copilot, I don't think there's a monopoly issue. Bing is far from dominant in the search space, so promoting Copilot probably isn't much of an advantage.

But I suspect many will have a sour taste in their mouth after getting pushed to use Bing when searching specifically for something else.

People complained when Bing promoted Edge after searching for the Chrome Web Store. I suspect similar outrage with the latest Copilot promotion.

A common "gotcha" argument is that other tech giants use similar tactics. But my mom always said, "two wrongs don't make a right."

On this week's episode of the Windows Central Podcast, Daniel and Zac discuss Panos Panay's big Alexa+ announcement, Microsoft trialling a free version of Office for Windows, Windows 365 Link fast approaching, thoughts on Chrome OS Flex, Framework's new 12-inch Laptop, and more!

Hosts:

• Daniel Rubino
• Zac Bowden

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On this week's episode of the Windows Central Podcast, Daniel and Zac discuss the latest on Windows 11, new features in the Dev and Beta Channels, and have its system requirements secretly changed? Also on the agenda: A new era for Surface, and why the Surface you know and love is dead. Plus, we try to decipher what Microsoft's Quantum chip announcement is all about, and HP's decision to acquire Humane AI.

Hosts:

• Daniel Rubino
• Zac Bowden

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On this episode of the Windows Central Podcast, Daniel and Zac discuss the official end of HoloLens and IVAS, Copilot being bad at summarizing content, Arm reportedly making its own chips, our thoughts on the latest Lenovo laptops, and initial impressions of the Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Ring!

Hosts:

• Daniel Rubino
• Zac Bowden

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Debate over the name of the body of water kicked off when President Donald Trump announced plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. At the time, the President also discussed renaming Mount Denali, annexing Canada, wanting Greenland to become part of the United States, and the United States reclaiming the Panama Canal. But I'll focus on the first here, since map debates are oh so invigorating.

President Trump has since declared the body of water the Gulf of America and made February 9 Gulf of America Day.

"As my Administration restores American pride in the history of American greatness, it is fitting and appropriate for our great Nation to come together and commemorate this momentous occasion and the renaming of the Gulf of America," said President Trump.

We'll have to wait to see if Gulf of America Day appears on Google Calendar. Pride Month, Black History Month, and Women's History Month no longer appear on Google Calendar. Google claimed that "maintaining hundreds of moments manually and consistently globally wasn’t scalable or sustainable," so surely the tech giant will find a calendar showing Gulf of America Day to be untenable.

With the Gulf of America officially declared as the name for the body of water, arguments ensued over if the name should appear on maps. Apple Maps and Google Maps seem to be shifting gradually and depending on where a user is. Bing Maps will do the same.

Without comment from Microsoft, I'm not sure if Bing Maps showing "Gulf of Mexico" exclusively is a political statement or a reflection of how frequently the service's information gets updated. I have reached out to Microsoft about the Gulf of Mexico name debate and how Bing Maps is updated.

How does Bing Maps get its data?

Bing Maps gets information from several sources. A blog post from 2020 explained that using a combination of providers helps the map service evolve over time and provide the best experience. That post explained that all of TomTom's map and traffic data was to be incorporated into Bing Maps, though I have not found an update regarding the status of that project.

Who names bodies of water?

The US federal government can dictate how the government refers to a body of water. Companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Apple set their own policies. The Gulf of Mexico is not the first body of water to have its name disputed or to have multiple names. For example, the same body of water that appears as the "Sea of Japan" on Google Maps if you're in Japan will appear as the "East Sea" if you're in South Korea.

Google has a blog post from way back in 2008 discussing how it determines the names of bodies of water. That post states:

"Under this policy, the English Google Earth client displays the primary, common, local name(s) given to a body of water by the sovereign nations that border it. If all bordering countries agree on the name, then the common single name is displayed (e.g. "Caribbean Sea" in English, "Mar Caribe" in Spanish, etc.). But if different countries dispute the proper name for a body of water, our policy is to display both names, with each label placed closer to the country or countries that use it."

I have not found a similar post from Microsoft regarding its naming policies. I'll update this piece with any information Microsoft shares.

The company did share a statement on the current situation:

"We are committed to providing users with accurate and up-to-date information. In accordance with established product policies, we are updating Bing Maps to reflect the Geographic Names Information System’s nomenclature in the United States which includes changing the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America in the US."

Some users in the United States have shared with me that they already see the change.

Daniel Rubino and Zac Bowden host this week's episode of the Windows Central Podcast, and on the agenda is Windows 11 and what looks to be next for the platform, including new features and Selenium. We'll talk about the current state of the Copilot+ PC, why it's confusing, and whether we're happy with ours so far. We also discuss our expectations around Build 2025 now that it's official, the latest updates from Qualcomm vs Arm, and the current state of Snapdragon laptops in the PC market.

It's a fun one, so tune in!

Hosts:

• Daniel Rubino
• Zac Bowden

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Windows Central attempted to replicate the scenario highlighted by the outlet and was greeted by the pop-up message outlined below:

"Enjoy your favorite extensions without switching browsers. Keep using to get world-class performance with more privacy, more productivity, and more value. Try now."

Interestingly, I attempted to make a similar query using Google Search and Chrome, but instead of searching for the Chrome Web Store, I looked up Microsoft Edge Add-ons. The search results were pretty straightforward and didn't feature a pop-up ad trying to keep me from switching browsers/search engines.

This isn't the first time Microsoft has used aggressive tactics and tricky designs to gain a competitive advantage over Google. Last year, Microsoft used its Bing Wallpaper app to get Windows 11 users to switch to Bing as the "recommended browser settings" for fast and secure search results, automatically sideloading Microsoft's Bing extension to Google Chrome.

More recently, Microsoft was spotted using "deceptive tactics" to transform Bing into a makeshift version of Google, down to the trademark Doodle on Google Search's homepage. Google's Chrome lead Parisa Tabriz commented, highlighting that this was a "new low" for Microsoft:

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but Microsoft spoofing the Google homepage is another tactic in its long history of tricks to confuse users & limit choice.

New year; new low @Microsoft"

Mozilla also placed Microsoft under fire for using deceptive tactics and harmful designs to give Edge a competitive advantage over other browsers on Windows. Interestingly, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed that Google makes more money on Windows than all of Microsoft.

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but Microsoft spoofing the Google homepage is another tactic in its long history of tricks to confuse users & limit choice. New year; new low," said Google's Chrome lead Parisa Tabriz.

Now, it appears that Microsoft is shifting away from its controversial strategy. If you search for "Google" through Bing, you're less likely to see the clone of Google's interface.

^{Searching for "Google" in Microsoft Edge (left) and Google Chrome (right) shows different results if you are using private browsing. (Image credit: Future)}

In my testing, I was only able to see the Google-esque version of Bing when searching for "Google" within an InPrivate browser tab in Microsoft Edge. Any other combination of Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and being logged in or using a private tab showed the normal Bing interface.

^{Searching for "Google" in Microsoft Edge (left) and Google Chrome (right) shows almost identical results when logged in. (Image credit: Future)}

There's a chance that Microsoft is just testing the interface and that results may vary from person to person. As far as I can tell, Microsoft has not commented on the clone of Google's UI publicly.

Microsoft and Google have a rocky relationship that dates back decades, which is hardly surprising considering the size of the companies and how much their services overlap. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed that "Google makes more money on Windows than all of Microsoft" due to the dominance of Google's search platform. The Microsoft CEO also argued that Google doesn't play fair with Bing,

Microsoft has tried several tactics to convert users to Bing over the years, including the Bing Wallpaper app prompting people to switch their search engine. Microsoft has used similarly aggressive tactics to push its Edge browser, which has Bing set as the default search engine.

We will continue to monitor this situation surrounding Bing and Google and update this piece with information as details become available.

During Google's antitrust hearing last year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella indicated Google doesn't play fair with Bing, further citing that its exclusive deal with Apple negatively impacts Bing's growth and reach. But as it now seems, Microsoft is reportedly using deceptive tactics to grow its market share against Google in the search landscape.

Interestingly, if you attempt to use Bing to search for Google without signing in with your Microsoft account, you'll be directed to a page reminiscent of Google's layout. The Verge (via Windows Latest) notes this is a blatant attempt by Microsoft to keep users from switching to Google by altering Bing's appearance to match the dominant search engine's aesthetic for this specific query.

Microsoft's makeshift Google search interface ships with features and designs you'd find while using Google, including a search bar and an image oddly similar to Google's Doodle. Windows Central attempted to replicate similar results, and everything per the reports shared seems to check out. Bing looks a lot like Google Search when you search for Google. However, it generates other queries, as you'd expect, suggesting the change could be by design.

It's worth noting that if you scroll down Google's Bing's search page, Google search results are at the bottom. Interestingly, the page features several tell-tale signs specific to Microsoft. If you're signed in using your Microsoft account, you'll get buttons including Copilot and deep search icons. When making the query via Bing, the revamped user interface initially hides the highlighted icons and the search results before they pop up at the top and bottom, though they can be easily overlooked.

In a post on X, Google's Chrome lead Parisa Tabriz commented that it represents a "new low" for Microsoft. It's worth noting that Google is currently under investigation in both the United States and European Union for abusing its market position to promote its own products. Glass houses and all that.

Either way, this isn't Microsoft's first rodeo using deceptive tactics to gain a competitive advantage over Google. In August 2024, Microsoft used its Bing Wallpaper app to get Windows 11 users to switch to Bing as the "recommended browser settings" for fast and secure search results. Users who accepted the changes indicated that Microsoft's Bing extension was sideloaded to Google Chrome automatically.

Windows Central has contacted Google and Microsoft for a comment and will update this post with relevant information once it's available.

• A bug caused weather widgets and graphics powered by Microsoft to show temperatures as high as 30,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
• The issue seems to affect the Windows 11 weather widget and other displays powered by Microsoft's weather information.
• Generally speaking, the earth stays cooler than 30,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

For much of the world, Christmas and the holiday season is about landscapes covered in snow. In other regions, it's summertime, so this time of year is quite warm. But in a hypothetical world described by the Windows 11 weather widget, the end of 2024 will include melting roads and the world as we know it on fire. A strange bug has caused weather graphics powered by Microsoft to display temperature as high as 30,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

It's not exactly clear what's caused the Windows 11 weather widgets and other Microsoft-powered weather displays to claim the world will be hotter than the surface of the sun. For reference, the surface of the Sun is around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit while the inside of that star is roughly 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. At least it won't hit temperatures in the millions in Microsoft's imaginary nightmare of a fiery hellscape. What we do know is that the bug is relatively widespread.

Reddit user Guilty_Parking made a post about their PC showing 30,014 degrees Fahrenheit in the Windows 11 weather widget. Another user, darkfae83, shared a similar post.

windows11 from r/Windows11/comments/1h6t2cr/30014f_temperature_mistake

Perhaps the bug is actually an homage to Doom Eternal. It could also be a not-so-subtle reminder about Microsoft's commitment to combat climate change. In actuality, it's likely just a programing bug. I don't see the bug on my PC and haven't been able to replicate it but our Zachary Boddy ran into the issue on one of their devices.

I imagine the bug will be fixed soon. But it's caused some funny photos and gives me an excuse to share one of the funniest videos on the web.

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• Microsoft recently released a new Bing Wallpapers app into the Microsoft Store to give us, you guessed it, wallpapers from Bing.
• However, despite its description, it looks like Microsoft is doing more than just serving up wallpapers using the app.
• Bing Search, Bing Visual Search, and a 'helpful' reminder in your non-Microsoft Edge default browser are all 'features.'

Recently, Microsoft launched its Bing Wallpaper app into the Store, which, on the face of it, should be a pretty good thing. Bing serves up some of the best looking images on the web every day, and setting them as wallpapers is definitely something worth doing.

The app itself, however, seems to be concealing some shady tricks, with Microsoft trying its best to shovel its services on potentially unsuspecting users. It's described as:

"Bing Wallpaper includes a collection of beautiful images from around the world that have been featured on the Bing homepage. Not only will you see a new image on your desktop each day, but you can also browse images and learn where they're from."

However, Rafael Rivera (@withinrafael) has been poking around inside the app and found it's doing much more than that.

There's a whole thread below that initial post which details (in quite technical detail, no less), what's going on, and it doesn't make for great reading. It's bad enough that it's diving into your cookies, but this is my personal favorite.

I'm far from a developer, but I'm not sure that Microsoft would appreciate Google, or Opera, going inside the Edge browser and trying to divert users away from it. It does feel like something of an abuse of power, because you'd like to hope an app behaving this way from someone else wouldn't be allowed into the Store.

On one hand, I get it. We're the product, and our eyeballs (and our data) is the payment. Microsoft wants it, just like Google wants it. But yet again we're talking about underhanded tactics to force Bing/Edge on users, rather than selling the products on their merits. I use Bing primarily because it's integrated with Microsoft Rewards, for example. And Copilot is a pretty good AI tool, even if I wish Microsoft would make up its mind on what exactly it wants it to be.

But above all, nobody should install an innocent sounding wallpaper app and have all kinds of other crap shoved on them. Do better, Microsoft.

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• OpenAI recently launched ChatGPT search — a fine-tuned version of GPT-4o, post-trained using novel synthetic data generation techniques.
• The search tool is based on feedback from OpenAI's temporary prototype search tool, SearchGPT. The ChatGPT maker plans to enhance its user experience, especially in the shopping and travel categories.
• The tool shipped globally to Plus and Team users, meaning you'll need $20 monthly to access it.

There have been rumors of OpenAI dabbling in the search landscape to give Google and Bing a run for their money. In July, the ChatGPT maker launched SearchGPT, a temporary prototype AI search tool that delivers timely responses to queries with clear and relevant sources.

The temporary prototype tool has garnered considerable interest among users. Google was recently ruled as an illegal monopoly in search, prompting regulation to foster fair competition in the landscape. While the tech giant awaits regulation measures for its search service, a former Google engineer claimed that the company may have bigger fish to fry with OpenAI's temporary search tool, already branded as a "Google Killer."

Now, OpenAI has launched ChatGPT search. Users can now use ChatGPT to search the web "in a much better way than before." Like SearchGPT, it promises fast, clear, and direct answers to queries with relevant web sources. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman indicated, "There is room to make search much better than it is today" while launching SearchGPT.

According to OpenAI:

"For many people, finding useful answers online often takes multiple searches and sifting through links. You can now ask ChatGPT in a natural, conversational way, pulling relevant information from the web and using the full context of your chat to provide better answers."

How does ChatGPT search work?

For context, OpenIA's new search model is "a fine-tuned version of GPT-4o, post-trained using novel synthetic data generation techniques, including distilling outputs from OpenAI o1-preview." The tool uses third-party search providers and content provided directly by OpenAI's partners for its answers.

The search model is based on feedback from the SearchGPT prototype, which means it brings the best SearchGPT experiences to ChatGPT. OpenAI has highlighted its plans to improve ChatGPT search's user experience, especially in shopping and travel. There are also plans to leverage its flagship OpenAI o1 series of AI models for deep research.

OpenAI says the integration of search into ChatGPT's chat interface creates a new way for users to interact with information. At the same time, the experience promises a broader audience for content creators, including publishers and authors, as the search results will feature highlighted links to the source.

According to OpenAI:

"We've partnered with news and data providers to offer even more up-to-date information and new visual designs for categories like weather, stocks, sports, and news."

To this end, the new search experience is exclusively rolling out to ChatGPT search Plus and Team users worldwide. You'll need a $20 subscription plan to access it. ChatGPT search is expected to roll out to Enterprise and Edu in the next few weeks. And finally, it'll ship to Free users over the next few months.

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• Microsoft's Bing has an elections experience that will show real-time information for national and state races.
• The experience also provides resources to help people register to vote and to know voting laws in their respective area.
• Election day in the United States is November 5, 2024, though many results will not be official until after that date.

Election day is just around the corner in the United States, and Microsoft's Bing has a new experience to help you vote and stay informed. The Bing 2024 Elections Experience lays out information about candidates, shows real-time information for election results, and includes helpful links to ensure that you're registered to vote.

In the days leading up to election day, Bing will show polling figures, the results of primary elections, and news stories about candidates and upcoming elections. The search engine will also show a link discussing "How to vote." That link helps people register to vote, not suggest a specific party or candidate to vote for.

On November 5, 2024, Bing will feature an interactive map with results of various races. You can use filters to show specific races, such as those for Senate or House seats. Gubernational (governor) races will also appear on the map. A variety of local elections will be featured by Bing as well, including State House and State Senate races.

Microsoft shared details about the experience in a blog post:

"At Bing, we’re laser focused on providing swift, straightforward ways to find the information you need from a variety of sources and content, all so you can make an informed decision. This election season Bing is providing a single, comprehensive experience for both the 2024 U.S. presidential race and state elections to deliver real-time election results, voting information, the latest news, and more."

While there are many impactful races that will occur on election day, many will follow the presidential race the most. The results of that race will appear in real time as well. Bing will let you keep track of the popular vote and the electoral college throughout the election.

The map will be updated in real time with information sourced by the Associated Press. Information and misinformation flood the web right now, so having accurate and reliable sources is more important than ever.

After the elections wrap up, Bing's maps will remain available, allowing you to study results.

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• Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman recently announced the Bing team is unshipping 27 features to simplify the search engine.
• The CEO didn't specify the features being removed from the platform.
• This news comes after Bing surpassed 140 million daily active users in April, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella attributed the feat to the company's AI efforts.

Earlier this year, Bing surpassed 140 million daily active users. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced the feat during the company's FY24 Q3 earnings call, attributing the immense success to its big AI push on the search engine.

Despite Microsoft's AI efforts in Bing, Google continues to dominate the search landscape. Now, the company is embracing a new approach to drive more growth toward the platform while improving its user experience.

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman recently announced Bing's team has simplified the search engine's user experience by unshipping 27 features. According to Suleyman:

“Simplicity is one of the core principles I am focused on.”

Microsoft AI's CEO further claimed the move would help remove complexities from the platform. "Being brave enough to undo complexity is important," added Suleyman while praising the team's efforts.

To this end, it remains unclear which features the Bing team is unshipping from the platform. The move could enhance Bing's user experience as users often complain about its (debatable) bloatedness.

A step in the right direction for Bing?

As it stands, Google continues to dominate the search market share with a whopping 90.01%, while Bing only claims 3.95%. This reality seems like a steep mountain for Microsoft to climb, but that doesn't mean it isn't doable.

During Google's antitrust case last year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella claimed Google doesn't play fair with Bing. He further indicated that Apple's deal with Google to use its search engine across its wide array of devices has negatively impacted Bing. Nadella stated that he was willing to part with up to $15 billion annually to secure a similar deal with Apple, citing it would be a game-changer for Bing.

Interestingly, Apple almost bought Bing from Microsoft, but critical quality issues thwarted the plans. Due to the search quality issues, Apple categorically stated, 'there's no price Microsoft could pay' to make it ditch Google. The iPhone maker claimed that Microsoft offered Bing for free but still turned down the offer.

Last year, watchdogs scrutinized Microsoft's Edge and Bing services, potentially placing them at risk that would warrant gatekeeper regulation. However, upon further investigation, the watchdogs discovered that the services weren't dominant enough in the digital market, prompting exemption from regulation.

Perhaps more interesting, a new kid on the block — OpenAI's "temporary prototype" search tool, SearchGPT could stir trouble and potentially break Google's dominance in search. Experts say the rapid adoption of AI is revolutionizing how users interact with the internet and search. While Google is fighting multiple battles in court, former Google Engineer Arvind Jain says:

"I think for Google right now, AI (is) a much bigger deal than the ruling. AI is fundamentally changing how the search product also works."

It'll be interesting to see if Microsoft's move to simplify Bing's user experience will help drive more growth to the platform and potentially give it a competitive edge over Google.

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• Bing appears to be down and is failing to load for many users.
• Reports of a Bing outage started spiking on DownDetector around 8 AM ET.
• While Bing holds a relatively small market share of search, millions of people use the search engine.

Microsoft's search engine, Bing, appears to be down for many users. Attempting to open the search engine shows an error message in some cases and fails to load results or the Bing website. Outage reports on Downdetector started spiking around 8 AM ET and increased dramatically around 10 AM ET.

Despite jokes about no one using Bing, including my headline, Bing is used by millions of people. Even a small percentage of search market share translates to millions of people. Statcounter shows Bing's market share at just above 11% for desktop search. Bing is essentially not a factor in market share on mobile devices.

This is a developing story, and we will update it as more information becomes available.

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• On top of being ruled a monopolist in the search landscape, Former Google Engineer  Arvind Jain says AI tools like OpenAI's SearchGPT could give Google a run for its money in the search landscape. 
• The Engineer claims Google is focused on generating profit, which has negatively impacted its service's user experience with annoying ads.
• However, critical issues are preventing these AI tools from reaching prime time, including a lack of attribution to the source and instances of hallucinations and misinformation. 

As you may know, Google lost a US DOJ antitrust case after Judge Amit Mehta indicated, "Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly" in his 277-page judgment ruling. As Google awaits further instructions from regulators on the next steps to mitigate its illegal monopoly in search, experts warn that it might have bigger fish to fry with emerging AI-powered internet search tools like OpenAI's SearchGPT.

Microsoft previously echoed similar sentiments with CEO Satya Nadella, indicating Google doesn't play fair with Bing in a separate antitrust case. Nadella claimed Microsoft was willing to part with $15 billion annually to attract a similar deal with Apple. It would be "a game-changing opportunity," the CEO concluded.

According to unearthed antitrust case files, Apple isn't willing to sever its ties with Google anytime soon. "There's no price Microsoft could pay" to make Apple ditch Google. We learned that Microsoft offered its Bing service to Apple for free, but the iPhone maker still turned it down, citing Bing's poor search quality and inferior monetization capabilities. Google reportedly pays $26 billion to maintain its search engine as the default across Apple devices. 

AI is rapidly redefining search

According to former Google Engineer Arvind Jain, Google is seemingly focused on generating profit from its services, which has significantly impacted Google Search's user experience. Consequently, Jain claims this could give competitors the edge to topple Google from its dominant position in search.

While speaking to Observer, Jain indicated:

“The experience was getting worse, especially on mobile devices, where there are just way too many ads on the page.” 

However, while Jain believes answer engines powered by large language models (LLMs) like SearchGPT (already branded Google killer) and Perplexity pose a great threat to conventional search engines, there's still a lot of work that needs to be done. "Personally, as a user, I don’t feel comfortable going to these answer engines," the engineer added.

He listed a lack of attribution to the source in the compactly packed AI-generated answers as a major issue, especially with the rampant instances of AI hallucinations, misinformation, and outright generation of wrong answers.

While this remains a long shot at best, it's possible that some of these critical issues could be addressed in the future, allowing new players into the search landscape to get a crack at Google's dominant market share. 

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• After being deemed a monopolist in search, Google is back in the corridors fighting a new antitrust case — this time targeting its dominance in digital advertising.
• The US DOJ and 17 states have filed an antitrust case against Google, citing anticompetitive business practices and unlawful behavior.
• Experts and analysts predict that the Justice Department may face issues establishing a legal ground for the case while referring to ad business as "complex."

It's been over a month since Google's search engine was deemed a monopoly in an antitrust ruling. And now, the tech giant is back in court fighting a separate antitrust case that could potentially change its entire advertising business.

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and 17 states claim that Google has leveraged its dominance to monopolize digital advertising, leaving competitors with the shorter end of the stick in the category. According to the DOJ, "Google has caused great harm to online publishers and advertisers and American consumers."

The antitrust case is slated to begin this Monday. The DOJ will attempt to demonstrate Google's 'illegal' monopoly in advertising. For context, Google generated approximately $200 billion in ad revenue.

Google has cited the effectiveness of its services as the secret ingredient to its immense success in the category. "No one is forced to use our advertising technologies – they choose to use them because they're effective," Google added. 

Google has bigger fish to fry beyond the monopolist antitrust ruling

While it's still early to determine the case's outcome, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) claims Google is abusing its dominance to gain the edge and competitive advantage over its competitors. The regulator claims that the tech giant leverages anti-competitive business practices and unlawful behavior to assert its dominance in the ad business.

Speaking to BBC, an antitrust professor at Vanderbilt University Law School claims it might be an uphill task to establish a legal ground to base its case. The advertising business is "so complex that I think that's going to be a real challenge for the government to make a clear, simple monopolization argument here."

While commenting on the issue, a Google spokesman referred to the antitrust case targeting its ad business as a flawed understanding of the ad sector. Last year, Google highlighted the exponential growth in the ad business with endless opportunities for its competitors while citing Apple, Amazon, and TikTok's recent success in the category.

Elsewhere, as regulators reign down on Google's anti-competitive business practices, the company faces greater challenges from fast-rising competitors in search, especially OpenAI's temporary prototype search tool - SearchGPT.

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• Google was recently ruled as a monopolist in an antitrust court ruling.
• Experts say the rapid adoption of AI is revolutionizing how users interact with the internet and search.
• AI tools like OpenAI's SearchGPT should be a top concern for Google, instead of the antitrust ruling placing it as an illegal monopoly in search alongside the pending regulation by US watchdogs. 

“Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” indicated Judge Amit Mehta in his 277-page judgment ruling on Google's dominance in the search landscape. While the tech giant awaits its fate and new direction as a business from US antitrust watchdogs, a new report by Reuters suggests it has bigger fish to fry.

As you may know, OpenAI recently ventured into the search landscape with a temporary prototype dubbed SearchGPT designed to help users find quick responses and answers to queries in a conversational tone. While its access is limited to a few unnamed partners and publishers, OpenAI will use the feedback to improve the tool's efficiency and possibly ship it to broad availability soon.

AI could give Google a run for its money

With the emergence of generative AI and AI-powered tools like Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT, people are starting to interact with the web differently. Expert analysts and investors in the sector say OpenAI's SearchGPT is already having a similar effect and impacting Google's user base. 

While speaking to Reuters, former Google Engineer Arvind Jain indicated:

"I think for Google right now, AI (is) a much bigger deal than the ruling. AI is fundamentally changing how the search product also works."

Jain added that while Google might have been ruled as a monopolist, its impact on the market might be stunted by appeals. The former engineer says AI poses a greater threat to Google's dominance in search. 

Other competitors in the search space have previously called out Google for its anti-competitive business practices designed to assert its dominance in the category. Microsoft isn't exactly speck-free. Earlier this year, Mozilla placed the Redmond giant on the spot for using harmful designs and deceptive tactics to give Edge a competitive advantage over other browsers in Windows.

Ironically, Google recently flagged Microsoft using its Bing Wallpaper app to get users to switch to "recommended browser settings" — Microsoft Edge and Bing. Bing has slowly gained traction thanks to Microsoft's aggressive AI campaign across its products and services, pushing it to 140 million daily active users in April.

Though the details remain slim at best, we know Google's dominance in search doesn't come cheap. It reportedly paid Apple $26 billion to maintain its search engine as the default across its devices. 

Interestingly, the iPhone maker admits there's no alternative search engine it could transition to, while citing Bing's search quality issues. Apple says 'there's no price Microsoft could pay' to make it ditch Google. At some point, Microsoft offered Bing to Apple for free, but the company still declined. 

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella indicated that Google doesn't play fair with Bing. Nadella indicated Microsoft was willing to part with $15 billion annually to attract a similar deal with Apple. It would be "a game-changing opportunity" the CEO concluded.

OpenAI and Microsoft stack miles ahead of Google in AI advances. Interestingly, AI models are reliant on Google for training. As you may know, Google hopped onto the AI bandwagon a tad later than its competitors, and it hasn't been smooth sailing either. Its recent AI Overviews feature failure placed Google in a bad light, but the company quickly fixed the issue, shifting the blame to a data-void and fabricated screenshots. 

The younger generation is reportedly more drawn to "modern research" tools like ChatGPT. This is highlighted in ChatGPT's fast-growing revenue and downloads on mobile.

While AI seems highly promising as a research tool that could potentially give Google a run for its money, it's still riddled with critical issues, including misinformation and overdependence on Google for training.

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• Reports indicate Microsoft is using the Bing Wallpaper app to get Windows 11 users to switch to Bing as the "recommended browser settings" for fast and secure search results.
• Users who accepted the changes indicated that Microsoft's Bing extension was sideloaded to Google Chrome.
• Windows Central can't independently verify these claims but has reached out for a comment from Google.

Microsoft's Bing and Edge might not dominate their respective spaces, but Windows dominates the desktop operating system market share with 72.08%. Earlier this year, Mozilla placed Microsoft under fire for using 'harmful designs' and deceptive tactics to give Edge a competitive advantage over other browsers on Windows. The tech firm's latest attempt featured a 3D banner recommending Windows 11 users to make Edge their default browser because of its built-in security features

And as it now seems, Microsoft still has one or two more tricks up its sleeves. While Windows Central can't independently verify the claims, the tech giant allegedly leverages its Bing Wallpaper app to "recommend different browser settings." The pop-up notification recommends setting Bing as the default search engine on Windows 11 for fast and secure search results.

Why is my wallpaper application recommending browser settings? from r/Windows11

I attempted to replicate the scenario on my PC but failed. However, I'll point out that the Bing Wallpaper app ships with optional offers checked by default, including Bing as my homepage and Bing as the default search engine. You might want to uncheck these boxes if this isn't your preferred setup before installing the application.

As highlighted in the Reddit post above, accepting Microsoft's "recommended settings" will automatically sideload the Bing extension into Google Chrome. If true, this might be another Microsoft campaign to get more users to ditch Google's services for Bing in Windows, even if it means adding Bing support to Google Chrome.

The user who flagged the issue is part of the Insider Beta Channel. The issue/bug may be limited to Insiders, and a fix might be coming. We've reached out to Microsoft for an official statement and will update this article with more context once it's available.

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• Grok is reportedly spreading false information about the forthcoming elections.
• X reportedly shoulder-shrugged the critical issue after it was flagged by five state secretaries and had already reached millions across social media platforms.
• Minnesota Secretary urges voters to reach out to their state or local election officials to find out more about the election and voting process. 

As we forge toward the 2024 presidential election, voters must be furnished with credible information. However, this isn't the case. With the prevalence of generative AI, bad actors are leveraging the technology's capabilities to spread misinformation about the election, ultimately impacting the voter's decision-making process. 

In a letter addressed to X owner Elon Musk, five state secretaries urged the billionaire to fix the social media platform's dedicated AI chatbot, Grok, after it was spotted spreading misinformation about the forthcoming elections (via Axios). Musk claims it will be "the world's most powerful AI by every metric by December this year." The tool is currently being trained using the world's most powerful AI training cluster to enhance its capabilities.

Grok generated and spread "false information on ballot deadlines" following President Biden's withdrawal from the race to The White House. It indicated that Vice President Kamala Harris had missed the ballot deadline across nine states, including Alabama, Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

For context, the AI chatbot's access is limited to X's Premium and Premium+ subscribers. Ironically, the false information was widely shared across multiple social media platforms, reaching millions. The letter indicates that the chatbot continued to spread the false information for 10 days before it was corrected, with X's response to the critical issue being a mere "shoulder shrug."

In a statement, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon indicated:

"In this presidential election year, it is critically important that voters get accurate information on how to exercise their right to vote. Voters should reach out to their state or local election officials to find out how, when, and where they can vote."

As AI tools become more sophisticated and advanced, it becomes more difficult to determine what's real.  

What is Microsoft and OpenAI doing to prevent the spread of misinformation sponsored by AI?

In case you missed it, Elon Musk filed a new lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI for a stark betrayal of the firm's founding mission and alleged involvement in racketeering. Musk claims he was lured to invest in OpenAI using a "fake humanitarian mission."

Elsewhere, OpenAI has put elaborate measures in place to help users identify deepfakes and AI-generated content. Right off the bat, the ChatGPT maker plans to use tamper-resistant watermarking to make AI-generated content easily identifiable.

RELATED: Elon Musk secretly trains Grok with your X data by default

Earlier this year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella indicated there's 'enough technology' to protect the US presidential election from AI deepfakes and misinformation, including watermarking, detecting deepfakes, and content IDs. 

Microsoft Copilot has previously been spotted generating false information about elections with researchers claiming the issue is systemic. However, this doesn't wash down Microsoft's efforts to empower voters with authoritative and factual election news on Bing ahead of the poll.

Microsoft President Brad Smith recently launched a new website featuring a quiz game dubbed Real or Not. It helps enhance the user's AI-detection skills. 

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• Apple says there's nothing Microsoft could offer to get it to switch from Google to Bing as the default search engine in Safari.
• The iPhone maker has listed Bing's poor search quality and inferior monetization capabilities as the main reasons it's maintaining the exclusive deal with Google.
• Generative AI could reshape the search landscape, but the future is uncertain at best right now. 

It seems Apple has popped Microsoft's bubble and dwindled its hopes of Bing being its default search engine across its ecosystem over Google. According to StatCounter's latest report, Google dominates the search landscape with a whopping 91.04% while Bing only holds 3.86% of the market share.

Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google is a monopolist in the United States vs Google antitrust case, citing its massive scale, high capital costs, and more. Google has been wrapped up in an antitrust case for weeks. Perhaps the most interesting deduction from the case is that Apple and the average user share similar sentiments — Google is the preferred default search engine tool.

As you may know, Google pays Apple large sums of money to be the default search engine in Safari. Over the past few years, Google has been accused of breaking antitrust laws after allegedly paying approximately $15 billion to secure and assert its search engine dominance. In 2021, the company paid a jaw-dropping $26 billion to maintain its search engine as the default across Apple devices. 

Apple says there's no other meaningful alternative. According to Apple Senior VP of services Eddy Cue:

“I don’t believe there’s a price in the world that Microsoft could offer us. They offered to give us Bing for free. They could give us the whole company.”

Based on Apple's sentiments and decision to maintain Google Search as the only viable option, Judge Mehta says it indicates the “market reality is that Google is the only real choice as the default GSE [general search engine].” 

Why Apple will continue using Google as its default search engine in Safari over Bing

In case you missed it, Microsoft was on the brink of selling its Bing search engine to Apple in 2018. However, the plans fell through after it was spotted with critical search quality issues. Further building on this premise, Apple conducted a study in 2021 to determine the search quality between Google and Bing. 

The findings left Bing with the shorter end of the stick, deeming it inferior to Google Search. It's worth noting that Bing outperformed Google Search in the desktop user interface category, but Google made up for this shortcoming across the rest of the benchmarks. 

While appearing at Google's antitrust trial last year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella indicated that Google doesn't play fair with Bing. Nadella claimed the exclusive deal between Google and Apple negatively impacted Bing's growth and reach. Interestingly, the CEO stated that Microsoft could pay up to $15 billion annually to attract a similar deal with Apple. He concluded by indicating it would be "a game-changing opportunity" for Microsoft.  

Microsoft proposed sharing 100% of its revenue from Bing with the iPhone maker to secure the deal, however, Apple raised concerns that it wouldn't be able to generate enough revenue because it was "horrible" at monetizing and advertising.

Aside from the recent challenges with its new flagship AI Overviews feature, Google generally spots a great reputation across the board (something Apple wants to maintain across its ecosystem). 

Apple's Senior VP of services indicated:

"It's a great product for our customers, and we wanted our customers to know that they're getting the Google search engine. It's a symbiotic relationship. Google is the best search engine."

Additionally, getting into a partnership with Microsoft and using Bing as the default search engine in Safari would force Apple to drop its current deal with Google. A move that would "jeopardize its revenue" as highlighted by Apple CEO Tim Cook.

 “AI may someday fundamentally alter search, but not anytime soon,” indicated Judge Amit Mehta. As you may know, Microsoft has been focused on integrating AI across its products and services, including Bing. 

The search engine surpassed over 140 million daily active users in April, with Microsoft attributing the increasing interest in the platform to the AI razzle-dazzle. It's possible that this could give Bing the upper hand over Google, helping it topple its dominance. 

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• A federal judge has ruled that Google's payments to other companies to make its search engine the default option on smartphone web browsers violate US antitrust law.
• The decision came on Monday afternoon in a 286-page ruling, and gives the Department of Justice a significant victory over the tech firm.
• The case is centered around $26.3 billion Google paid in 2021, which has given the company a significant edge over competitors like Microsoft with its Bing search engine.
• Notably, the ruling has only determined that Google is guilty. It doesn't include details about remedies, so how this decision will affect Google's business is currently unclear.

A federal judge has ruled that Google's payments to make its search engine the default option on smartphone web browsers like Safari were illegal. The decision came on Monday afternoon, giving the US Department of Justice (DOJ) a major victory in its case against the Alphabet Inc. subsidiary.

"After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly," reads a statement from Judge Amit Mehta in the 286-page ruling. "It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act."

The DOJ's suit targets Google's $26.3 billion in payments made to various different tech companies in 2021, resulting in Google being made the default search engine on smartphones. This has given the firm's business a significant and distinct advantage over competing engines, the most notable of which is arguably Microsoft's Bing.

In the ruling, Mehta went on to say that these payments have allowed Google to effectively monopolize search on mobile platforms, and that that "has enabled Google to increase text ads prices without any meaningful competitive constraint.” Google itself is — by far — the most popular search engine in the world, with the company behind it pulling in hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue.

What this decision means for Google isn't precisely clear yet, as the document that contains this first ruling only focuses on the company's guilt. Even so, any potential remedies will surely serve to bolster the position of Microsoft and other competitors in the search market.

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Analysis: A big win for Microsoft and Bing

While this is undoubtedly a huge loss for Google, it's also a gigantic win for Microsoft, which stands as the biggest competitor to Google with its Bing search engine. Though Microsoft has been more successful in its efforts to challenge Google's supremacy over the market than others, it's still struggled to significantly disrupt it. This ruling, however, has paved the way for that to possibly change in the future.

Smartphone search undoubtedly represents a colossal portion of search engine use overall, and depending on what remedies Google and its partners have to make, Microsoft could get an opportunity to capture a significant part of it with Bing. It won't be easy — Google's monopoly stretches back decades, making it the search engine to use — but the odds of Bing and other engines gaining traction are certainly a lot higher than they were yesterday.

• Reddit has blocked Bing from crawling the social media site.
• The change took place on July 1, 2024, after which Microsoft's AI tools had to stop crawling Reddit to index content.
• It appears that all search engines apart from Google are now unable to scrape Reddit for data, which means those search engines cannot show results from Reddit's website.

Bing will no longer show search results from Reddit. If you navigate to Microsoft's search engine and try to filter results to be from Reddit or simply include Reddit in a search query, you will not be presented by any results from Reddit's website from the past week. The same thing happens if you try to get Reddit results from DuckDuckGo or other non-Google search engines.

Reddit now includes a robots.txt file that says sites are not allowed to scrape data from the website. You can check out the specific page that mentions scraping to see the code in question.

Microsoft confirmed the change in a statement to Search Engine Land:

"We respect the robots.txt standard. Bing stopped crawling Reddit after they implemented their updated robots.txt file on July 1, which prohibits all crawling of their site.”

Despite the change file, Google is able to display search results from Reddit. A Reddit spokesperson told The Verge that Bing being blocked is not related to Reddit's partnership with Google:

"This is not at all related to our recent partnership with Google. We have been in discussions with multiple search engines. We have been unable to reach agreements with all of them, since some are unable or unwilling to make enforceable promises regarding their use of Reddit content, including their use for AI."

Note that the spokesperson did not deny the existence of a partnership between Google and Reddit, just if the partnership is the reason for Bing being blocked. Google's deal with Reddit was reportedly worth $60 million and provides Google with real-time access to content from Reddit. 

A blessing in disguise?

Bing, and other search engines, have always been handy for searching topics on Reddit. In the past, I've found searching for content and adding "Reddit" to the search or specifically filtering results to be from Reddit has been effective. Search engines are often better at finding content than Reddit's built-in search functionality.

While crawling Reddit may be useful for finding specific Reddit threads or content, Bing not having access to Reddit may be a blessing in disguise when it comes to generating responses with AI. When Google gained the rights to use Reddit content for its search engine, Google recommended people eat glue to keep cheese on a pizza. Reports that Google recommended a depressed person jump off a bridge were worrying. Google also suggested people consume rocks daily, which is not sound health advice.

Thank you to Liam (@djsonicwarrior on X) for the tip about Bing being blocked by Reddit.

• Microsoft has unveiled an update to Bing web searches that overhauls search results with AI-powered answers.
• The new search results page will include a detailed AI-generated answer, followed by curated sources that the AI answer has pulled from.
• Traditional search results will still appear alongside the AI-generated results in a sidebar on the right.
• The new experience is currently available to a small subset of users.

Microsoft has announced a major update to Bing Search that overhauls the search results page with AI at the heart of its experience. Currently available to a small subset of users, Bing Search now incorporates AI-generated answers in addition to traditional search results directly on the search page.

At the very top of the page will be an AI-generated answer created by large and small language models that have reviewed millions of sources to provide the most accurate answer. It will break down that answer into a document index that can provide more information about particular subjects within that search query if you'd like to learn more.

Microsoft describes the new AI-generated search experience as follows:

"This new experience combines the foundation of Bing’s search results with the power of large and small language models (LLMs and SLMs). It understands the search query, reviews millions of sources of information, dynamically matches content, and generates search results in a new AI-generated layout to fulfill the intent of the user’s query more effectively."

The search page will also list the sources that the AI-generated text was created from below the answer, and will even present traditional search results in a sidebar on the right for those who are uninterested in Bing's curated AI experience. 

Microsoft says it continues to evaluate the impact that AI in search is having on websites in terms of direct traffic and readership. There's a growing concern in the industry that websites that create content for free will eventually go out of business if AI bots scrape that content to present it directly in a chat window or search page.

This new AI search experience has been built from the ground up with this concern in mind, Microsoft says. The company claims this new experience maintains the same number of clicks to websites that traditional search does, but time will tell if that's true.

Microsoft isn't the only company adding AI-generated results to search pages. Google is also adding Gemini-based answers to search results too, which appear at the top of the search result page.

The new Bing Generative Search experience is rolling out to a small wave of users now, and will likely make its way to more Bing users over the coming months. Curiously, this new experience doesn't appear to use the Copilot brand anywhere.

• Microsoft will discontinue the receipt scan feature within the Start and Bing apps that allows users to earn cash back on any purchase.
• The receipt scan feature will stop working on July 25, 2024, after which users will no longer be able to scan receipts to earn cash back.
• The Microsoft Cashback Program will continue to be available, but people will have to use Microsoft Bing and Edge at participating online retailers to earn cash back.

Microsoft will stop offering cash back for scanning your receipts later this month. The company sent out a message to those that have used the tool, specifying that the receipt scan feature will no longer be available as of July 25, 2024. After that date, you will no longer be able to earn cash back by scanning receipts through Microsoft applications.

Microsoft did not specify the reason that the feature will stop working. There is a good chance that few people used the receipt scan option in Microsoft apps, though there could be other factors at play. Scanning receipts was only an option from the Bing or Start apps, which are not heavily used. My guess is that few people knew about the feature and that even fewer people took advantage of it.

The Start app is the rebranded Microsoft News app. Microsoft shifted its News app to become Microsoft Start in September 2021. In addition to presenting news and weather, Start includes some shopping features, such as storing loyalty cards.

Our Editor-in-Chief Daniel Rubino explained how the Start app was Microsoft's once-rumored "Super App," although the app has not proven to be very super. Here's a snippet of what Rubino had to say about Start near the end of 2022:

"Folks, it’s been here for over a year now, right in front of our faces the entire time. Now, the question is, is it even good? I give it a solid meh. I find myself using it primarily for news, but there is no doubt Microsoft is shoehorning as much as it can into this thing to make it a super app. It’s a solid effort and a clear example of what such a concept could look like, but I find it unlikely it will gain much traction simply because we eschew such things in Western markets."

Microsoft announced its receipt scan feature in October 2022. While it was active, the program let you earn cash back with any receipt. The tech giant emphasized that you could get free cash back with "no catch." While you could earn money with any receipt, you could earn bonus cash back on everyday items, such as eggs, fruit, and milk if purchased through Walgreens, Walmart, or Target.

Here's what Microsoft had to say about the feature being discontinued:

"Thank you for using the receipt scan offers as part of the Microsoft Cashback Program. Due to recent changes, the receipt scan feature will no longer be available as of July 25th 2024, and you will no longer be able to earn cash back by scanning receipts through Microsoft applications.

Your Microsoft Cashback balance is always available to you on the web via bing.com/rebates. The Microsoft Cashback program will continue to offer cash back to users who have opted in to the program when they shop with participating retailers on Microsoft Bing and Edge."

The message announcing the end of the scan receipt features confirms that a person's Microsoft Cashback balance will be available through bing.com/rebates. While the receipt scan option is going away, Microsoft's Cashback program will continue to be available. But after the July 25 cutoff for the receipt scan feature, you will have to shop at participating retailers on Microsoft Bing or Edge to earn cash back from Microsoft.

• Several Microsoft services are down right now for users in Europe and Asia.
• Copilot and Bing started seeing outage reports spike around 3 AM ET.
• The outages also affect ChatGPT's ability to search the web and the DuckDuckGo search engine.
• Microsoft has confirmed the outages and is investigating.

Several Microsoft services are down right now, including Copilot and Bing. The outage also affects ChatGPT, preventing the service from being able to search the web. DuckDuckGo, which uses Bing, is affected as well.

The outage began around 3 AM ET on May 23, 2024. Users in Asia and Europe appear to be the ones primarily affected by the issue.

"We're investigating an issue where users may be unable to access the Microsoft Copilot service. We're working to isolate the cause of the issue. More information can be found in the admin center under CP795190," said the Microsoft 365 Status account on X (formerly Twitter).

Downdetector shows a spike in outage reports for Bing as well. The number of issues with Bing appears to be going down, however.

Outages like this happen from time to time and rarely last that long, but they cause inconvenience for those who rely on affected services. The timing is less than ideal, since Microsoft had two major events this week. The tech giant unveiled its Surface Pro 11 and Surface Laptop 7 on Monday then held its annual Build conference over the following two days. The events sprung Microsoft into the spotlight, so its services having outages isn't a great look.

• The EU has issued a legally binding request to Microsoft seeking Bing's internal documents and data.
• The Commission states that the search engine is on its radar because its supercharged AI tools like Copilot and Image Creator from Designer could potentially be used to mislead and misinform voters about the forthcoming elections.
• Based on their findings, the EU could launch formal proceedings and subject Microsoft Bing to provisions introduced by the DSA (Digital Services Act).

Despite Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confidently stating there's "enough technology" to protect the US presidential election from AI deepfakes and misinformation, the European Commission has issued a legally binding request to the tech giant seeking Bing's internal documents and data.

The Commission initially requested this information in March, aiming to assess the possible risks associated with Bing's sophisticated AI-powered tools, including Copilot AI and Image Creator from Designer (formerly Bing Image Creator). However, Microsoft failed to furnish the EU with information. 

Per the request, Microsoft has exactly 10 days (until May 27) to respond. If it fails to deliver on this request, the EU will have probable cause to impose fines of up to 1% of Microsoft's total annual income or worldwide turnover and periodic penalties of up to 5% of the provider's average daily income or worldwide annual turnover.

According to The Commission:

"The request for information is based on the suspicion that Bing may have breached the DSA for risks linked to generative AI, such as so-called 'hallucinations,' the viral dissemination of deepfakes, as well as the automated manipulation of services that can mislead voters."

The Commission further stated that Generative AI is one of the risks identified under its Digital Services Act (DSA) as a potential threat to the electoral process. As such, Microsoft must conduct comprehensive risk assessments and adopt respective risk mitigation measures outlined in Articles 34 and 35 of the DSA.

Bing, a "very large online search engine," must comply with the provisions introduced by the DSA. At this time, the Commission suspects that the search engine could pose a risk to civic discourse and electoral processes. The DSA specifies that it is within its mandate "to request, by decision, further information to Bing relating to suspected infringements," as highlighted in Article 67(3).

After accessing Microsoft's submissions, the Commission could decide to open formal proceedings based on the findings. 

Is AI a threat to electoral processes? 

Microsoft has implemented measures to maintain the integrity of the impending US presidential election, including watermarking, detecting deepfakes, and content IDs. It has also highlighted its plan to empower voters with authoritative and factual election news on Bing ahead of the poll.

READ MORE: You'll 'need' to use Bing to repair your Windows 11 device

However, a previous report has highlighted several instances of Microsoft Copilot furnishing voters with misleading information regarding the forthcoming elections. Researchers indicate the issue is systemic, as the chatbot was also spotted generating misleading information about the election process in Germany and Switzerland. 

There are reports of China using AI-generated images, videos, and memes to misinform voters about the elections and brew outrage in the US, South Korea, and India. This is consistent with deepfake press statements generated using Microsoft Copilot regarding a Russian de facto opposition leader's recent passing, potentially placing President Biden and President Putin at loggerheads. 

• Microsoft PC Manager is reportedly suggesting Windows 11 needs to be repaired for users who don't use Bing as their default search engine.
• The utility tool is designed to optimize the performance of your Windows 11 PC by performing a health check, managing storage, and more.
• Microsoft has been placed on the spot in the past for using deceitful tactics and ploys in a bid to get users to use its services, citing  "anti-competitive practices."

Per Microsoft's latest earnings report, its AI efforts are seemingly ripping benefits for its AI-powered search engine, Bing. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated the search engine has surpassed over 140 million daily active users.

And now, perhaps in a bid to get more users to switch over from the dominant Google, Microsoft's 4.5-star rated PC Manager app will ask you to repair your device if you're not using Bing as your default search engine in Windows 11 (via Windows Latest).

For context, Microsoft's PC Manager app is designed to help users optimize the performance of their Windows PC by performing a health check, managing storage, and more. As it now seems, its capabilities now stretch beyond optimizing Windows 11's performance to suggesting the search engine you should use in your device. This is the latest episode in Microsoft's aggressive and intrusive ad campaign in Windows 11. 

Microsoft is all-in on its ad campaign on Windows 11

Last month, Microsoft started testing showing ads in the Start menu's "Recommended" area on Windows 11 (which is already unpopular among users because of its flawed design and "comically bad" performance).

In February, new research commissioned by Mozilla revealed that Microsoft is reportedly using harmful designs and deceptive tactics to push its Edge browser to Windows users. The report further highlighted that the company's continued use of misleading UIs and ads deters users from using other browsers aside from Microsoft Edge in Windows.

Microsoft was listed as a gatekeeper by the European Commission last year alongside other key players in the tech landscape. Microsoft's Windows, Bing, and Edge services were under the DMA (Digital Markets Act).

Interestingly, Microsoft Edge and Bing were recently exempted from DMA regulation by the antitrust watchdog. The regulator indicated that the services weren't dominant enough in the digital markets to warrant regulation.

As we speak, Microsoft is 100% compliant with the European Union's DMA regulation, allowing users to uninstall OneDrive, Edge, and Bing on Windows 11.

The Microsoft PC Manager tool isn't the only avenue the tech giant is exploiting to try and get users to use its services. Microsoft's Rewards program recently received a major overhaul adding streak restore and protection capabilities, making it available across all 7 continents. The company announced that it has partnered with Duolingo to provide Rewards members with access to 3 months of Super Duolingo for free when they use Microsoft Bing on Edge for 3 days.

• OpenAI will hold a live event on May 13, 2024 at 1 PM ET (10 AM PT).
• The event will not include an announcement of a search engine or GPT-5, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
• OpenAI will, however, show "new stuff" that Altman says "feels like magic."

OpenAI has a live event on May 13, 2024. The event starts at 1 PM ET (10 AM PT) and promises to show "new stuff" that "feels like magic" to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Despite rumors of an OpenAI-backed search engine to compete with Google and teases of GPT-5, neither of those pieces of technology will be unveiled at the event.

We already knew about the event, as it was announced late last week, but with it approaching quickly, we wanted to make sure people know to tune into the live stream. OpenAI will stream the event live through YouTube (live view embedded below).

Ironically, you may have to verify that you are a human to watch the OpenAI event, as the company's website occasionally checks if you're a real person. I had to click a box to verify I wasn't a robot before being able to view the site today, but that prompt only appears periodically. I guess OpenAI wants to make sure other AI models can't tune in.

What will OpenAI announce?

Altman has been open about what OpenAI will not announce at the event, but the CEO has been tight-lipped about what the company will unveil. We know that OpenAI will not announce a search engine to compete with Google at the event. We also know it's not going to be GPT-5 that's unveiled, despite Altman teasing GPT-5 already.

There is a report by Bloomberg of a partnership between Apple and OpenAI being on the horizon. There's a chance that partnership is involved in today's news, though Altman's promises of the "new stuff" feeling like "magic" would suggest something more than a simple partnership with Apple. Perhaps seamless integration with Siri would be magical in the eyes of Altman.

Apple's M4 processor, which powers the new iPad Pro, is powerful enough to run AI locally. If OpenAI and Apple worked together to create a Siri 2.0 that used GPT tech and ran locally, it could result in a magical experience. But I suspect if Apple had a truly magical experience on the way, the company would want to showcase it at its own event, not during an OpenAI live stream.

So, where does that leave us for the event on May 13? The speculation on social media and around the web is that OpenAI may have a new voice assistant in the works. At the moment, you have to interact with ChatGPT in a way the involves the tool creating text. A true voice-to-voice model could pave the way for ChatGPT or GPT-powered AI assistants competing with Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, and Google Assistant.

Luckily, we don't have to wait long to find out if the rumors are true. OpenAI's event kicks off at 1 PM ET (10 AM PT) and will be streamed live.