Microsoft exec reveals Bing could get model updates up to 3 times a year

Mikhail Parakhin, chief technology officer for Bing, said that Microsoft’s revamped AI-powered search engine could be updated with new models “maybe 3 times a year or so.”

There are no specifics about this revelation, which Parakhin shared on Twitter as an answer to a question from a user. Also, the executive shared no roadmap or proof, and the entire statement appears to be a guesstimate. Nonetheless, given Parakhin’s role in the Bing business of Microsoft and his frequent announcements about Bing updates, this is exciting for many still rooting for Bing.

Microsoft is frequently rolling out new features and improvements to Bing in hopes of making it more competitive against its rival, Google Search. Recently, Microsoft Bing’s Jordi Ribas said that users could access chat history in the next few days, and the company also integrated Bing Chat into SwiftKey in April. Yet, aside from these features, one of the biggest improvements of Bing usually originates from a new model, making Parakhin’s statement a thrilling detail. For instance, Microsoft revealed in March that Bing has been using OpenAI’s latest GPT-4 model since February, explaining some improvements in the Bing Chat’s responses, including multimodality ability. Now, the bot can even generate images, thanks to OpenAI’s DALL?E model. That said, in case Microsoft injects a new model into Bing, there is a huge chance we could all see significant features like these in the future.

Unfortunately, there are still no clear details about what to expect in the next model. Also, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that GPT-5, the next model the company is expected to develop, is not currently in training, adding it won’t be for some time. This might sound like a contrast to what Parakhin claims since we’re already almost in the middle of 2023, and all we have at the moment is one model update. So, is Bing really getting a model update three times a year? Well, all we can do is wait and hope.