ChatGPT: There are ‘multiple’ millions on the Bing waitlist. Here’s how to get earlier access

Microsoft has said there are now “multiple millions” of people are now on the waitlist its ChatGPT-powerd Bing Chat — up from just over a million a few days ago. 

Also: What is ChatGPT and why does it matter? Here’s everything you need to know

Only a week ago Microsoft unveiled the new Bing with a chat feature powered by a next generation version of OpenAI’s GPT-3 large language model behind ChatGPT. 

Within two days, it attracted over a million people to the waitlist, and now Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft corporate vice president and consumer chief marketing officer, says “multiple millions” are on the waitlist. 

“Demand is high with multiple millions now on the waitlist. So we ask for a little patience if you just joined the waitlist” he tweeted. He said Microsoft is “slowly scaling people off the waitlist” but assured fans it will make good on its promise to “scale to millions of people beginning in the coming weeks.”  

Bing Chat is currently in a limited preview while Microsoft tests it with the public — some of whom have successfully prodded it to reveal its codename is Sydney and the many rules its responses are governed by. 

Mehdi also offered a few tips for fans to get ahead in the waitlist. Basically, install Edge and make it the default browser and make Bing the default search engine. Also, install the Bing Mobile app . 

“We are prioritizing those with Bing and Edge as their default search engine & browser as well as the Bing Mobile app installed to optimize the initial experience. Over time we intend to bring it to all browsers,” wrote Mehdi. 

Microsoft’s search engine is undergoing an unprecedented run in the spotlight after being overshadowed by Google Search for the past 14 years. Bing launched in 2009, a decade after Google Search was launched and has over the years been the one Microsoft product that investors love to hate. 

Mehdi didn’t reveal how many people are in the limited preview, but he said Microsoft is currently testing the “new Bing” with people in 169 countries. While emphasizing the public’s interest in the new Bing search capabilities, he said Microsoft is “seeing a lot of engagement with new features like Chat.” 

Microsoft said the new Bing is running on a next-generation of OpenAI’s large language models (LLM) in the GPT-3 and -3.5 series, making it “more powerful than ChatGPT.” 

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said this will “fundamentally change” all software, starting with what he said was the “largest category of all — search”. Microsoft claims the addition to Bing of its next generation version of OpenAI’s GPT will lead to the “largest jump in relevance in two decades.” For this task, it developed the “Microsoft Prometheus”, a proprietary model that meshes with OpenAI’s models to generate more relevant results.  

Microsoft also updated its Edge browser with a chat and compose sidebar for the new Bing. The new Bing now prompts users to “ask me anything”, enticing users to ask open-ended questions rather than keywords.  

If the buzz around ChatGPT does rub off on Bing as a search engine, Microsoft could see its user numbers meaningfully increase. ChatGPT gained 100 million users within just two months to become the fastest-growing app of all time. 

According to Statista, Bing has 1.2 billion users. But Bing also only has about a 4% of the world’s search market, compared to Google’s 92%, according to Statcounter GlobalStats.