Microsoft Bing

Report March 2025

Submitted
Commitment 28
COOPERATION WITH RESEARCHERS Relevant Signatories commit to support good faith research into Disinformation that involves their services.
We signed up to the following measures of this commitment
Measure 28.1 Measure 28.2 Measure 28.3 Measure 28.4
In line with this commitment, did you deploy new implementation measures (e.g. changes to your terms of service, new tools, new policies, etc)?
Yes
If yes, list these implementation measures here
Microsoft and IE University’s Center for the Governance of Change in Spain collaborate onAI4Democracy to create knowledge and promote action for a responsible use of artificial intelligence to defend and strengthen democracy. Launched in November 2023, AI4Democracy is ongoing and the continuation of the Tech4Democracy program, an initiative led by IE University in partnership with the United States Department of State and with the strategic support of Microsoft.  

Do you plan to put further implementation measures in place in the next 6 months to substantially improve the maturity of the implementation of this commitment?
Yes
If yes, which further implementation measures do you plan to put in place in the next 6 months?
Ongoing review of researcher feedback and requests may result in additional measures and resources.

In addition, Microsoft Research regularly explores potential partnerships with third party research institutions and is actively in discussions with several research institutions on potential misinformation and disinformation related research that may leverage Bing Search data. Microsoft’s internal research divisions also regularly initiate and support research relevant to misinformation and disinformation. 
Measure 28.1
Relevant Signatories will ensure they have the appropriate human resources in place in order to facilitate research, and should set-up and maintain an open dialogue with researchers to keep track of the types of data that are likely to be in demand for research and to help researchers find relevant contact points in their organisations.
QRE 28.1.1
Relevant Signatories will describe the resources and processes they deploy to facilitate research and engage with the research community, including e.g. dedicated teams, tools, help centres, programs, or events.
Bing Search facilitates research, engages with the research community, and provides data to the research community in a variety of ways, as described below and in QRE 26.1-2 and 18.3.1. 

More broadly, Microsoft dedicates significant resources to supporting, promoting, and developing research on emerging issues including responsible AI, safe design, search and information retrieval, language learning models, and algorithms. Microsoft Research and other research groups within the company, such as the AI for Good Research Lab, employ robust teams of researchers and data scientists and regularly utilize Bing Search datasets and web search as part of important research efforts, including research focused on misinformation and/or disinformation. 

Microsoft Research and the AI for Good Lab regularly explore potential partnerships with third party research institutions and are actively in discussions with research institutions on potential misinformation and disinformation related research that may leverage Bing Search data. Microsoft also works with Princeton University to increase researcher access to data on cyber enabled influence operations.

Microsoft Research also established the Accelerate Foundation Models Research (AFMR) global network and resource platform to assemble an interdisciplinary research community around solving some of today’s greatest technical and societal challenges through aligning AI with shared human goals, values, and preferences; improving human-AI interactions; and accelerating scientific discoveries.
 
Microsoft is currently undertaking additional research and education on how users interact with content provenance tools and the use of content provenance tools for AI including through its grant with C2PA.. 

Microsoft Research has also undertaken research related to information integrity and elections in the age of generative AI. 

Lastly, Bing Search regularly partners with third party nonprofits and research organizations and NGO partners to review and evaluate emerging trends, techniques, tactics, and threat intelligence in misinformation and/or disinformation and related topics.