Microsoft has released a new browser extension for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge that gives users the ability to disable AI overviews and chat features in Bing search results.
“When it comes to AI, we believe Bing users should have a choice in how they search,” Microsoft says in a new blog post. “That’s why Bing offers both AI-powered and traditional search experiences, including a browser extension that lets people easily turn off AI features in Bing.”
The new browser extension adds a toggle to your web browser that allows you to turn on or off the AI features in Bing at any time. Microsoft admits that “research shows users want to have the option to choose whether or not AI is involved in every session.”
The extension is available to download now for both Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, but be warned: The extensions will set your default search provider to Bing, which makes sense given it only works on Bing search results.
It’s unclear why Microsoft opted to deliver this functionality as an extension, and not as a toggle within the Bing website itself. The good news is the browser extension isn’t entirely required.
If you don’t want to deal with a browser extension, Microsoft has also added an “operator” tag that you can add to the end of search queries to disable AI features manually. Just add -ai to the end of a search term and that will disable all the AI features in Bing for that search query, no extension required.
The downside to the operator is that you need to remember to apply it to every search query, every time you go to search for something. The browser extension ensures the AI features are disabled automatically every time.
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