AI Bing chat access: How to jump the waitlist for Microsoft’s ChatGPT-like search tool

Microsoft made a big splash last week by unveiling an AI enhanced Bing. Its search site has long been the butt of jokes, with Google dominating the space, but people took notice of this new flavor of web search from Microsoft, which can do research for you as well as create stories, itineraries, menus, emails, and more.

The new features are the result of a collaboration between Microsoft and OpenAI, the creator of the controversial ChatGPT service, which may result in some real competition for Google. The feature is not available to all web users yet, but you can sign up for the waiting list to test it, as shown below. Here’s how to access the new Bing faster, according to Michael Muchmore(Opens in a new tab) on Mashable’s sibling site PCMag.com(Opens in a new tab).

But the list is quite long: Microsoft corporate vice president Yusuf Mehdi recently tweeted that millions have joined the waitlist(Opens in a new tab) and outlined the rollout process.

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How to Try the New ChatGPT-Enhanced Bing

Follow these instructions to move up the waitlist.
Credit: Microsoft

For now, you’ll need to join a waitlist to try out the Microsoft Bing ChatGPT integration. Head to this website(Opens in a new tab), log in with your Microsoft account, and you’re on the list. After that you’ll see an option to Get Faster Access(Opens in a new tab).

Microsoft has a few suggestions for how best to move up the list. Here are the steps (which the utility download on the Faster Access page automates) that Microsoft says will get you the new features faster:

MacOS users, of course, can’t get those Windows defaults, but when I tried the Fast Access link on a MacBook, it took me to the Bing wallpaper, so that may speed up access. And in Firefox it adds the Bing extension to that alternative browser. Apple users can also install the mobile app on their iPhone.

Getting the New Bing in the Edge Web Browser

Insider channels for Microsoft Edge web browser.
Credit: Microsoft

If you’ve paid attention to the announcements from Microsoft, you know that the new AI chat and text-generation capabilities are also coming to the Edge web browser, which is available for Linux and macOS as well as for Windows. Remember, the new AI features will be built into Edge as well as available on the Bing website and mobile app.

As with Windows, there’s an Edge Insider program(Opens in a new tab) that gives users a taste of new features coming to future versions of the software. I thought installing the preview build would get me the new AI search, but my waiting list status was the same in all three preview builds of the browser.

A preview of AI-generated content creation the Edge browser extension.
Credit: Microsoft

So it turns out there’s no shortcut to avoid the waiting list. But if you follow the steps that Microsoft suggests, you should get the new search tools faster.

Even More Options

For more background, read about the other advantages of Bing(Opens in a new tab) and the Edge web browser(Opens in a new tab). Plus, read about alternative search engines(Opens in a new tab) and alternative web browsers(Opens in a new tab).