After Bing, it’s the Edge browser’s turn to welcome Bing Image Creator, Microsoft’s image generator based on Dall-E that allows you to create impressive illustrations from a simple textual description.
Microsoft continues its race for artificial intelligence. And at full speed! An aggressive strategy to quickly dominate the AI field and compete with Google in the Internet search sector. So after integrating the GPT-4 language model into its Bing search engine and Edge browser, adding Bing Image Creator (“Bing image creator”) into its chatbot, and then announcing the addition of Bing Chat to its SwiftKey mobile keyboard, the Redmond company is taking a new step by incorporating its image generator directly into Edge. As a reminder, Bing Image Creator allows you to create visuals from a short textual description, with a rather impressive result (see our article). Thus, in a blog post published on April 6, 2023, the company thus announces the deployment, for users around the world on Windows, macOS and Linux, of its generative AI module for its web browser. Enough to push Internet users to prefer Edge to Google Chrome!
Bing Image Creator: an image generator in Microsoft Edge
Bing Image Creator works like DALL-E and Midjourney: all you have to do is describe the image you want to obtain for the AI to generate four proposals. If one of them interests the user, he only has to click on it to obtain a clearer and more precise rendering, and then download it. Until now, the image generator could only be used within a chat with Bing Chat – you had to ask it “create an image of…” or “generate an image of…”. Now, by clicking on the tool icon in Edge – which is Windows’ default browser – a window with a search box will appear. All you have to do is enter keywords and the AI will get to work. Microsoft presents this option as a way to create visuals “very specific”to work on posts for social networks, slideshows or even illustrate documents.
The Redmond firm has begun to deploy this function to Internet users around the world. But gradually, as always, which explains the fact that not everyone is entitled to it yet. AT Note that Bing Image Creator is not operational by default. To take advantage of it, you must activate it manually by clicking on the button + in the right sidebar, then click on the corresponding module. Integrating the image builder into Edge makes it easier to ask the AI to create images, while still browsing the web.
Microsoft Edge: the browser is full of new features
Microsoft is taking advantage of this announcement to remind you of the arrival of other, to say the least, practical functions. This is the case with Drop, which has been in beta since June 2022 and is now available to everyone. The tool makes it easy to transfer files from one device to another through Edge, without going through any software or online service. All you have to do is log into your Microsoft account in the browser of your various devices and drop files in the side panel to switch them to another device thanks to synchronization (see our article).
Microsoft is also adding an image editor to its browser. This tool lets you edit artwork found online directly in Edge before saving it to hard drive. Accessible from the right-click context menu, it allows you to crop an image, adjust its brightness and colors, or even apply filters.
Finally, Microsoft has also optimized Edge’s Efficiency Mode to provide better performance and control over computer power consumption. Now, when Edge detects that the battery of the unplugged device is low, it will automatically enable Efficiency Mode and browser power saving features. This update also offers more options for how to save battery.