AI image creator comes to Microsoft Bing

• Since expanding the relationship significantly two months ago, the tech giant has also launched a new AI-powered Bing and Edge browser and announced plans to bring AI into its Microsoft 365 tools (Word, Excel, etc.).

How it works: I tested the image creator this morning with two prompts — “A magical world where everyone gets along” and “The present world where everyone gets along.”

• After a few seconds, Bing spit out four images for each prompt, as seen above.

What they’re saying: "[I]mages are one of the most searched categories — second only to general web searches,” Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s consumer chief marketing officer, wrote in today’s announcement.

• “Historically, search was limited to images that already existed on the web. Now, there are almost no limits to what you can search for and create.”

Translation: Microsoft's search engine can build you something from scratch if you can't find — or don't want to look for — alternatives.

What to watch: Any profound change to the search business has the potential to upend the lucrative economics that have built Google's empire, Axios' Ina Fried has written.

• Google launched a limited rollout of its ChatGPT competitor Bard today for people in the U.S. and U.K.

Hope’s thought bubble: With demand now so high for visuals, this tool may come as a relief to some content creators.

Go deeper

• Illustration competitions grapple with generative AI