Microsoft
Microsoft says Edge and Bing users created over 1.8 billion AI-generated images and engaged in more than 1.9 billion Copilot chats in 2023. Pixabay

In 2023, Microsoft Edge and Bing users engaged in over a whopping 1.9 billion Copilot chats. In fact, the Redmond-based tech giant claims Copilot chats rivalled the total number of websites that existed on the internet in 2022.

In his latest blog post, which was published on the company's official website, Microsoft's Roger Capriotti noted that users created more than 1.8 billion AI-generated images. That's around 1,800 times more than the entire combined collection of the Louvre and Metropolitan Museum, he added.

The Edge browser, which reportedly shares your browsing history with Bing Chat AI, managed to stop more than 127 million phishing attacks.

That's the equivalent of 4 phishing attacks stopped every second for an entire year, Capriotti, who is a General Manager of Browser and Search Marketing/Growth at Microsoft pointed out.

Microsoft Edge helped gamers, shoppers save money

Aside from this, US-based users who used the Edge browser to shop online had a yearly average savings of $400 (about £314). As if that weren't enough, Microsoft claims worldwide shoppers were offered a total of more than $4 billion (about £3.15 billion) in savings on Edge.

As far as gaming on Edge is concerned, Capriotti noted that users played nearly 9,000 years of casual free games, which is a remarkable engagement. That's more than 4.7 billion minutes played on the Edge browser since the feature was launched.

Notably, more people played the Edge surf game "Surf City," daily, than the entire population of Huntington Beach, California. On top of that, gamers earned 148 million rewards points on Edge, which can be redeemed to pay for 1,000 years of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Microsoft's attempt to be a major force in the AI space

"We believe that 2023 will be remembered as the moment we began to harness the power of AI in our daily lives, unlocking new ways to achieve more than we thought possible," wrote Capriotti.

In fact, he believes this era will be as important as PC was back in the 80s, internet in the 90s, mobile in the 2000s and cloud in the 2010s.

This aligns with an earlier report that indicated Microsoft is planning to use generative artificial intelligence (AI) to be at the forefront of the gaming industry.

This year, the software giant says it managed to strike a perfect balance between AI research with customer feedback to deliver breakthrough innovation. In addition to providing users with "truly magical experiences," Microsoft says it reimagined browsing as we know it.

"In 2023, Microsoft Edge became your AI-powered browser," the top executive added.