Newshot Microsoft lets users turn off Bing AI answers, but installing the extension requires setting Bing as the default search engine
IT Home, November 12: Over the past few years, Microsoft has continuously added AI features to Bing search, including displaying AI-generated answers alongside traditional search results. While these features are indeed useful in some cases, not all users want to see AI-generated content when searching. Now, Microsoft has introduced two ways to turn off Bing AI answers, though one of them comes with a rather unreasonable condition.
IT Home notes that in a blog post published yesterday, Microsoft acknowledged that according to the company's research, users want to decide for themselves whether to use AI during searches. Some users like getting a short AI-generated summary directly, while others prefer to browse search results, compare information from different sources, and make their own judgments.
To meet the needs of different users, Microsoft has introduced a browser extension called Microsoft Bing AI Search Choice, currently available in preview for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge users.
After installing the extension, users can enable or disable AI-generated answers in Bing search via a simple toggle. The setting applies to all Bing searches, so there is no need to readjust it for each search.
However, this extension has a rather unreasonable additional condition: installing it automatically sets Bing as the browser's default search engine. For users who only want to control Bing's AI features without changing their browser's existing search settings, this is clearly unnecessary.
More notably, why does Microsoft need to release a dedicated browser extension to achieve such a basic function? In fact, Microsoft could simply add a toggle in Bing search settings that lets users permanently turn off AI-generated answers without installing any extension. It could even place this option directly on the Bing search results page for easy adjustment at any time.
Microsoft also offers another method that does not require installing an extension. Users can add the "-ai" operator after their search keywords to get traditional search results without AI-generated answers. For example, searching "best laptops 2026 -ai" will return search results without displaying AI-generated answers. This also means users must manually add this operator for every search, which is not convenient to use.
It is worth mentioning that Google has also recently come under criticism over AI feature issues. Previously, Google said that if schools chose to turn off AI features, students might also lose access to traditional Google search services.
Facing outside opposition, Google later clarified that schools can enable search services independently without having to use separate AI services such as Gemini at the same time. However, Google still has not provided schools with an option to directly turn off AI Overviews and AI Mode in search results.
By comparison, Microsoft at least provides Bing users with an option to turn off AI-generated answers, which is commendable. However, the experience would clearly be better if Microsoft offered a permanent off switch directly in search settings, rather than requiring users to install an extension or manually add a search operator every time.
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