Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled a new version of its Bing AI chatbot for businesses. The company said Microsoft Chat Enterprise, currently available in preview mode, offers “commercial data protection.”
In a blog post, Microsoft said that companies can use the AI chatbot in the workplace without putting confidential information and other sensitive data at risk.
Protecting Sensitive Business Data
Over the past few months, several companies, including Apple and Samsung, have banned the use of AI chatbots in the workplace over concerns that employees would inadvertently leak sensitive information. Bing Chat Enterprise is designed to address these fears.
Unlike OpenAI, which uses the prompts and other content users provide to train ChatGPT, Microsoft said user data is not saved or used to train Bing Chat Enterprise.
“What goes in — and comes out — remains protected. Chat data is not saved, and Microsoft has no eyes-on access – which means no one can view your data. And, your data is not used to train the models,” Microsoft said.
The company explained that Bing Chat Enterprise is trained using data collected from the web. It “provides complete, verifiable answers with citations, along with visual answers that include graphs, charts and images, and is designed in line with our AI principles,” Microsoft explained.
Bing Chat Enterprise is included at no additional cost in Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard, and Business Premium plans.
Microsoft plans to offer Bing Chat Enterprise as a standalone product in the future for $5 per user per month. The service is accessible wherever Bing Chat is supported, including Bing.com/chat and the Microsoft Edge sidebar. It will also be available from Windows Copilot in the future.
Microsoft’s New AI Tools for the Workplace
In addition to Bing Chat Enterprise, Microsoft also announced that Microsoft 365 Copilot — an AI-powered chatbot integrated into Microsoft 365 — will be available for commercial users for $30 monthly per user. Microsoft Copilot is currently available to some companies as part of an early access program. Microsoft is yet to announce when it will be widely available.
Microsoft is also rolling out Visual Search for Bing Chat. This will allow users to upload images and search the web for related content. This feature is being rolled out on desktop and the Bing mobile app. Microsoft plans to bring this feature to Bing Chat Enterprise over time.
Despite the data protection guarantees, it’s best not to share sensitive information with chatbots. We recommend you review and adjust the privacy settings of any chatbot you use for improved privacy. Also, read its privacy policy to see what data is collected and how it is being used.
You can learn about how AI chatbots may threaten your privacy in our article about the privacy risks of ChatGPT.
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