• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, September 22, 2023

Publishers are uncomfortable with chat features that use artificial intelligence (AI) when they cannot control the use of the site's content, so Microsoft created an option that lets them limit what is served in chat responses.  

It addresses concerns raised by publishers, but allows the discovery of website through traditional search results.

Earlier this year Microsoft and Google, in separate announcements, shared visions on the next phase of search supported by generative AI (GAI).

“With the introduction of Bing Chat, some webmasters and publishers expressed the need for more control over use of their content,” according to a post published Friday on the Microsoft Blog. “While we are actively collaborating with the industry on establishing future AI standards, we also wanted to provide more immediate support for publishers to address the concerns they raised when we met with them.”

Controls indeed. Satisfying publishers, Microsoft built standard controls that webmasters can use to determine index and snippet length on Bing. The change lets publishers make choices about the use of their content that not only serves up in Bing Chat, but is used to train Microsoft’s GAI foundation models.

Webmasters have the choice of implementing these controls. Microsoft said no action is needed to remain in Bing Chat, but provided a list of options to implement if needed.

Since publishers wanted an option to use these choices without impacting how Bing users discover web content in Bing’s search results page, content with the NOCACHE tag or NOARCHIVE tag will still appear in Bing search results.

Webmasters wanting strict control of content can use the NOCACHE option to allow Bing Chat to refer to their websites. To help Bing chat users find paywall articles, Microsoft recommends adding the NOCACHE value to the NOARCHIVE value, since many paywall sites use only the NOARCHIVE tag.

Standards indeed. U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer last week held an exclusive gathering of tech leaders to an AI Insight Forum to focus on AI regulation. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Sam Altman, and Jensen Huang were Among those on the guest list. Some 14 of the 22 attendees were CEOs of major tech companies.

The AI shake-up is occurring not only across the technology industry, but others as well. On Sept. 20, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed an executive directive on artificial intelligence, Executive Directive No. 5, instructing state government to establish standards and identify opportunities for the government to use AI technologies.

The directive prompts the Office of Regulatory Management to work with the state’s chief information officer and relevant secretariats to review AI standards and piloting opportunities across four areas. It gives a deadline of Dec. 15, to deliver recommendations.