Microsoft has found a new way to force Bing AI onto Edge users – it’s in your PDFs
Bing integration with Edge’s PDF reader is in testing
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Microsoftis sneaking another tendril of itsBingAI into Edge, with thechatbotgetting integrated with thebrowser’sPDF reader functionality, at least in testing.
This was spotted by Twitter-based leaker Leopeva64, who has uncovered a lot of material relating toEdgein recent times. The Bing chatbot integration was found in the Canary channel of testing for the browser.
Bing Chat will also be integrated into Edge’s PDF reader:https://t.co/5GQikmlzdE.https://t.co/7wZwuAuBcf pic.twitter.com/Cn7cLC5CSLMay 9, 2023
You can see how it works in the tweet above. There’s a new ‘Ask Bing Chat’ button present in thePDF reader, and if you click it, you’ll get the Bing AI popping up in the sidebar (on the right).
It’s then possible to start a chat relating to the PDF which is currently open in Edge, carried out in the usual way from there.
Analysis: Expect more of this sort of thing
We’ve seen Microsoft crowbarring Bing into Edge with several fresh angles of late, in what’s becoming a clear enough pattern. Earlier this month, the same leaker highlighted the presence of anew option to fire up Bing AIin the right-click context menu in Edge, a pretty sweeping measure in terms of integration.
That change was also in testing with the Canary version of Edge – the earliest test build – so these bits of functionality still have a long way to go before they reach the release version of Microsoft’s browser.
However, given the general big push for Bing – not just in Edge, but elsewhere, such as inWindows 11(in the taskbar, search box) – we’d be surprised, frankly, if these changes weren’t realized. More to the point, we’d expect Microsoft to be looking for other areas of the interface, certainly in the Edge browser, where Bing AI can be inserted.
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As ever, there’s a line to tread here, between raising the profile of the Bing chatbot, and running the risk of annoying people who don’t want to see the AI popping up everywhere in the browser. Although it’s true that this line is likely to be drawn in a different place with testing compared to release, and not everything will make the cut.
As to how Bing AI is faring in terms of usage thus far, the chatbot may be undeniably popular, but itdoesn’t seem to be driving up Bing search trafficgoing by some new figures (though do note – thiscontradicts stats we’ve heard previously).
Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - ‘I Know What You Did Last Supper’ - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).
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