Microsoft’s Bing chatbot now lets you create images using OpenAI’s DALL-E

Microsoft is adding an AI-powered image creation tool to its Bing search engine, reports The Verge. Bing Image Creator will be based on an enhanced version of OpenAI’s DALL-E model and will allow users to create images by simply writing what they want to generate.

“For those in the Bing preview, Bing Image Creator will be fully integrated into the Bing chat experience, rolling out initially in Creative mode,” explains Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s head of consumer marketing. “By typing in a description of an image, providing additional context like location or activity, and choosing an art style, Image Creator will generate an image from your own imagination.”

Microsoft is also bringing Bing Image Creator to its Edge browser. A new icon will appear on the Edge sidebar that will allow you to create an image in the text input window:

“We will initially only include Image Creator in the creative mode of Bing chat and our intention is to make it available in balanced and precise mode over time,” says Mehdi.

If you are not using the new previous version of Bing, you can access Bing Image Creator separately at bing.com/create to create images in English. Microsoft says it will add support for more languages over time. Previous Bing users can start using the image generator in the regular chatbot window or through Microsoft Edge.

Meanwhile, experts warn that text-to-image systems can create images that can be used for propaganda, harassment, disinformation, and more. Microsoft claims to protect against any abuse:

“We have ensured OpenAI’s safeguards, plus additional protections, have been incorporated into Image Creator,” says Mehdi. “For example, we have put controls in place that aim to limit the generation of harmful or unsafe images. When our system detects that a potentially harmful image could be generated by a prompt, it blocks the prompt and warns the user.”

Along with this new imaging tool, Microsoft is also bringing new Stories and Knowledge Cards 2.0 features to all Bing users. Stories offer snippets of information with images and short videos, while Bing’s updated AI-powered Knowledge Cards highlight key information.