Microsoft is saying goodbye to Bing Chat and turning it into Copilot, aiming to give it new impetus

Microsoft decided to abandon the brand Bing Chatless than a year after launching its AI chatbot to finally adopt a name Second pilot. Perhaps this is a way to focus their efforts and unify the criteria in the fight against Google’s Bard and ChatGPT, with whom they share technology..

“Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise will now simply be a co-pilot,” Colette Stallbaumer, general manager of Microsoft 365, explained in a statement. The company said it is trying to “simplify the user experience” and make the tool “more accessible to everyone.”

The change comes a couple of months after Microsoft chose Copilot as the name for its chatbot in Windows 11. This is the first sign that the Bing Chat brand will disappear completely. Moreover, after a few days ChatGPT will report that it already has over 100 million weekly users.

This Wednesday, Microsoft introduced Copilot as a free version of its AI chatbot. It will still be available on Bing and Windows. But now, like ChatGPT, will have its own domain: copilot.microsoft.com. This makes the experience more independent because access to the tool is not dependent on browsing in Bing.

Bing Chat is now called Microsoft Copilot

The company also announced that the chatbot payment method, formerly called Microsoft 365 Copilot, has been renamed Copilot for Microsoft 365. “This does not change any of our promises regarding residency or data management,” the technology company explained. You’ll have access to Microsoft Graph and support integration with Microsoft 365 Apps.

Bing was the main character at the beginning of the year as Microsoft moved towards artificial intelligence. This integration, which leveraged ChatGPT technology, surpassed 100 million daily active users for the first time in its history. This news excited Microsoft, which It even prompted Google to launch Bard, its own AI chatbot.

But the initial enthusiasm did not last long. A few months later, Bing continues to operate without taking market position from Google. the absolute master of search with over 90% of the global market share. Microsoft, however, says Bing will continue to play an important role. “They continue to be a great brand and the technology behind many of Copilot’s projects,” said Caitlin Roulston, director of communications for Microsoft.

Now the relationship with OpenAI is not without a certain degree of complexity. In principle, they are strategic partners. Microsoft invested billions of dollars since 2019 to fund the startup that created ChatGPT. In exchange, the company received privileged access to use its technology in tools such as Bing. And everything points to the fact that sooner or later the people of Seattle will absorb the people of San Francisco.

But the cost of developing ChatGPT isn’t lost on Redmond. For this reason, he began to look for alternatives. The company, for example, has already tasked some of its engineers with developing cheaper, proprietary conversational artificial intelligence. Microsoft product development teams will already be incorporating some of this software into existing products.

Although this does not mean that as part of the resumption of cooperation with Copilot, Microsoft intends to sever ties with Sam Altman and the company. In fact, OpenAI’s CEO recently assured that expects to receive even more money from those headed by Satya Nadella to advance the development of GPT-5.