Interested in AI, but sick of using everything in a browser? Miss clicking on a good old desktop icon to open a local bit of software? In that case, BingGPT could be just the thing for you.
It’s nothing too crazy—just a desktop application that gives you access to Bing’s AI-powered chatbot. It’s available on a range of platforms, from Windows, to Apple, and Linux, and binaries are available for Intel, Apple Silicon, and ARM processors.
Using BingGPT is simple. Sign in with your Microsoft account, and away you go. There’s no need to use Microsoft Edge or any ugly browser plugins, and you can export your conversations to Markdown, PNG, and PDF for sharing beyond the program. It’s also complete with a range of keyboard shortcuts to speed your interaction with the large language model when it gets off track. There’s also the Compose button which can actually go ahead and write stuff for you.
Fundamentally, all the cool stuff is still coming in via the web, but it’s nice to be able to use Bing’s chatbot without having to succumb to the horrors of a Microsoft browser. It’s interesting to see how large language models are becoming an all-pervasive tool of late. If you’re building your own nifty projects in this area, don’t hesitate to let us know!
Really, what’s the difference between this and running it through Edge?
It’s not a desktop application if I must sign in with a Microsoft account.
It’s not a desktop application if it relies on cloud resources to do anything.
I don’t even *have* a Microsoft account, so guessing I can’t even download it.
Just as well, probably.
You cant use the web version without a MS account.
No M$ account here either. Don’t run Windows (at home). That said, I also don’t see where chatGPT is a good thing in Web context. Seems like it is more of a way to ‘slant’ search results (even make things up) given the designers preferences and beliefs. On the other hand, for designing a complex chip or some such inference activity should find a useful place.
Edge isn’t like IE used to be. Why the hate
I think everybody knows that Chrome is the new IE (AKA internet-scourge)
When you search on Bing for “download Chrome” bing returns a message ahead of the search results telling you you don’t need Chrome; if you go to the page anyway, Edge pops up a message from the actual application telling you you don’t really want Chrome… I had to do this on windows the other day to use an app that couldn’t run on Linux.
But to be fair, both Microsoft and Alphabet will spy on you but at least you have a choice who you sell your soul to, if you go that route.
Sold my soul to the company store. [_insert name of company here_]
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MTCen9-RELM
Because we didn’t forget what MS did for the last 30years.
Totally agree Adam. I like the new edge and use it when I am not using Tor Browser for full privacy.
They saved up enough hate for a few decades worth of skepticism. Don’t care, not using edge, and the mere fact that I can’t uninstall it is already too aggressive and makes it official distribution malware in my opinion.
You can uninstall all microsoft apps, just google how. (It’s easy, trust me).
Has anyone noticed with this all ai-centric things, the search results ( both google and bing. Duckduckgo never worked ok for me ) has worsened in the recent weeks ? Searching things that should have returned a lot of hits returns nothing, and many things returned are not even related ….
You know what they say: “Things are gonna get worse…before they get worse”
That is because everybody posts stuff in a walled area like instagram or facebook. Plain old websites are dying out
Yeah. Google is basically a reddit/twitter search engine, with some scam sites and ads thrown in. Totally useless
I…am so confused…why is this article on Hackaday? Why does this product exists? Like others have said, how is this any different from using it in the browser? What “horrors” does Edge have that wouldn’t exist in a MS desktop app? Edge is a perfectly fine browser. The only objection someone might have is with using a MS service, which you would be doing on the desktop app anyway.
HaD Articles that are this short seem like a hasty way to fill space and boost SEO.
On Linux, I had to install Edge just to be able to use Bing Chat, and it was pretty weird to open a second browser just to use a different search tool (I’m not going to use a closed binary for regular browsing, so it was only when I wanted to use their service).
Thankfully, there are better alternatives for what I ended up using it for most, namely https://phind.com
Locally run models are supposedly getting really good, so I’m looking forward to when more VRAM is available on lower power GPUs so I can just switch to that for most things. Phind (and things like it) may still have a place, since it is actually still a search engine.
It’s enough to spoof the user agent to use it in any browser
is that true? i thought i used bing chat under chrome on linux? i went to try it just now, and it acted like it would work but then told me i had to create a microsoft account…but i don’t think bing has anything against chrome?
They should release cards with a GDDR6x (or wherever it is) expansion slot.
There’s obvious interest but not enough in their view to have a market for cards with lots of RAM that increases the price without getting much faster in most games.
Mind you they now have that seamless mapping of VRAM and system RAM and system RAM getting faster and faster they possibly could just allow you to map normal RAM to the cards that also have dedicated RAM. Perhaps a software thing would be enough.
Maybe e-mail AMD about it, they are pretty open in communication I accidentally found out once. Or at least they were.
I wonder if system RAM mapped to the graphics card would be an issue for something like AI, I have no idea what it requires. But either way, it would be a thing that could bring benefits even if it was slower than wished for I would think.
I say AMD but if AMD did it I imagine the others might follow (yes plural, there’s Intel remember :) and since we are talking Linux and small developers you can expect way more from AMD of course.
I need to use IE for legacy things. They could have left IE alone, but no it must be absorbed into edge.
And edge wants to take over my pc like most M$ software.
Sooooo glad to see a new toolbar / searchbar appear on several desktops after an update.
It’s called malware when it isn’t forced on your agasint your will by actors other than M$.
It’s not the end of the world but I already have Firefox and Chrome. Do I need a third just for an LLM?
Posted with the tag “Software Hacks”
Right..
How about replacing that with a ‘sponsored content’ tag? Aren’t there rules about that stuff these days?
Much more interesting to Hackaday’s audience would be GPT4All, that you can run locally on a typical CPU without an internet connection.
Tried to use this and ran into a number of problems. First Bitdefender declared it an Advanced threat and removed it. I added to the exclusion list and then couldn’t get it to function after numerous uninstalls, appData cleaning it etc. I went to Git and read a lot of folks were having problems getting it to work. One post asked if this had been abandoned and there were no replies.
I finally uninstalled everything and deleted the installer. I will stick with the excellent version in Edge (which I do use and like).
Bitdefender was correct the first time
You almost have to respect Bing. They obviously really want to embrace/extend/extinguish both AI and search engines, either of which would be incredibly ambitious, but to use one platform in an attempt to parasitize and exploit both?
I’ve been experimenting using Poe, which gives access to several different LLM’s (including limited or paid models for the major ones), but I’ve really enjoyed trying “Claude” (through the Poe interface, which saves conversations and stuff). Claude is a refreshing change from the delusions of the GPT-based models.