At a Microsoft press event today where the corporate demonstrated its latest AI-powered search capabilities in Bing, the corporate also announced a new edition of its Edge web browser that features AI technologies in-built. With the brand new browser, web users are capable of do things like summarize search results with AI’s help and converse with AI chatbots to get their questions answered, amongst other things.

“It’s sleeker, it’s lighter,” said Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft Corporate VP, when demonstrating the new edition of the browser, which now sports just a few aesthetic changes, like rounded corners.

Just like the updates coming to Bing, an AI chatbot is obtainable in a sidebar in Edge and includes two functionalities at launch: chat and compose.

These may be combined to assist users do things like summarize lengthy web content, run comparisons and even create content, in some cases.

Mehdi showed off how Edge’s AI powers might be put to make use of in a handful of demos in the course of the event. In a single, he visited the Gap website to look up the quarterly reports and earnings. He clicks a link to view the Q3 report and it pulls up a 15-page PDF.

“It’s pretty long. I won’t have time to read all that. What I’d love is a summary of the important thing points,” he says.

Then, with a click, he opens up a chatbot from the highest of the browser and asks it to offer him an important takeaways from the page. The AI returns a summary promptly, representing a “massive time savings,” Mehdi notes.

What’s more impressive, nevertheless, is what the AI does next. He has it compare the Gap Q3 financials to Lululemon’s Q3 and make a table with its findings.

Image Credits: Microsoft event photo via TechCrunch

In one other demo, he showed off how the AI might be used alongside the developer resources on the Stack Overflow website. He shows how a developer who was researching tips about the way to parse a JSON file finds a code snippet they need to use. However the code is in Python and the developer wants it in Rust.

To get help with this from the AI, Mehdi highlights the text, which then brings it up in Edge’s latest sidebar, then instructs the AI to write down the code in Rust. It does.

In a final example, Mehdi demonstrates using the AI within the sidebar to write down a LinkedIn post. (And also you thought the company posts gave the impression of bots now!).

On this case, he gives the AI just a few prompts to get it began. You may as well ask to refine the post by tone, format or length, and Edge understands and updates the draft accordingly.

The news about Edge was announced alongside the anticipated arrival of OpenAI’s technologies within the Bing search engine, following Microsoft’s $1 billion investment into OpenAI. On the event, Microsoft revealed the way it integrated OpenAI’s GPT-4 model into its search engine to offer users with a ChatGPT-like experience. Except in Bing’s case, the AI isn’t limited only to data covering as much as 2021 — it’s able to handling queries related to newer events.

Alongside these AI updates to Bing, the updated Edge browser will probably be available to preview today.

“AI will fundamentally change every software category, starting with the most important category of all – search,” said Satya Nadella, Microsoft Chairman and CEO, in an announcement. “Today, we’re launching Bing and Edge powered by AI copilot and chat, to assist people get more from search and the online.”