Microsoft has confirmed that advertisements are set to appear in Bing’s AI-powered chatbot, according to a blog post by the company’s corporate vice president, Yusuf Mehdi. While ads have been in testing in Bing for some time, the confirmation marks the first time that they will appear in the chat experience.
Confirmation from Microsoft
Speaking about the development, Mehdi said in a blog post on Wednesday that the company is “exploring placing ads in the chat experience,” and when asked for more details, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed that users might start seeing them.
In a statement to The Verge, Caitlin Roulston, a director of communications at Microsoft, said, “Yes, ads will show in the new Bing, specifically in chat (as they do in the traditional search results). As the new Bing is currently in preview, there may be some variation in how the ads are currently displayed. Microsoft is still investigating new ad experiences and plans to reveal more information in due course.
Unclear Details
While it is still unclear how often ads will appear or how Microsoft will determine whether to show an ad or source a response directly from a publisher or website, According to Mehdi, Microsoft intends to distribute the advertising revenue with partners whose content aided in generating the chat response.
The inclusion of ads will add to the already difficult cognitive load of determining whether a given response can be trusted, and the company has not revealed the volume of ads users might see or the balance it plans to strike between ad and non-ad responses.
A Logical Way to Mark Ads
The company has shared an example of what the ads might look like, with citations and a small “Ad” box that appear to link back to Bing after two sentences. This appears to be a logical way for Microsoft to mark an ad, and if this is the experience users eventually see, it should not be too obtrusive.
Overall, the confirmation of advertisements in Bing’s AI-powered chatbot marks a significant development for the platform, and it will be interesting to see how users respond to the inclusion of ads in the chat experience.
