Microsoft has recently announced plans to expand the character limit for Bing Chat. This change, which will affect both consumer and Bing Chat Enterprise, is set to double the current limit from 4,000 characters to 8,000. In other words, Bing Chat is now able to provide longer answers to prompts.
Feedback Leads to Expansion
The decision to increase the character limit came after feedback from users, particularly from the enterprise sector. A notable mention was a tweet from a company representative who pointed out that while they found Bing Chat Enterprise beneficial, the character limit posed a challenge.
Mikhail Parakhin, Vice President of Search at Microsoft, addressed this concern in a tweet. He acknowledged the need for expansion but also highlighted the complexities involved. “The algorithms that power Bing Chat are quadratic in context size,” Parakhin mentioned, indicating that the expansion to 8,000 characters would make the process four times more resource-intensive.
It is the same in both Consumer Bing Chat and BCE. We will expand it, but not quickly: all the algorithms are quadratic in context size, so, increasing to 8K would be 4x more expensive.
— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) September 12, 2023
Additional Features and Availability
Apart from the character limit enhancement, Microsoft is introducing other improvements to Bing Chat. New plugins have been made available, and an Enterprise mode is set to launch as a separate product priced at $5 per user monthly. Furthermore, Microsoft Edge users now have the option to utilize command prompts within the Bing Chat sidebar, enabling them to modify browser settings, including themes.
In a move to increase accessibility, Microsoft has also ensured that Bing AI chat is no longer exclusive to the Edge browser and is now compatible with other popular browsers such as Chrome and Safari.
Bing Chat Enterprise, a version of the Bing Chat generative AI chatbot tailored for businesses, was first introduced in July. The chatbot boasts enhanced privacy and security features, making it suitable for business use.Bing Chat Enterprise is currently in public preview for specific Microsoft 365 subscribers, with an official rollout expected later in September.
