(CNN) — Apple’s MacBook Pro lineup and colorful iMacs just got even faster.

At an event livestreamed on Monday night, the company introduced its next-generation family of custom-made processors – the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Pro Max – and along with it, a handful of new computers.

The event’s tagline — “scary fast” — was an apparent nod to the unveiling of the next-generation silicon chip series, as well as the Halloween holiday Tuesday. In the beginning of the pre-recorded presentation, CEO Tim Cook appeared wearing all black within a dimly lit spot inside Apple’s Cupertino, California-based headquarters, standing in front of an apparent smoke machine.

Although unveiling a new processor may not sound sexy, it will serve as the backbone to Apple’s latest products, enabling faster speeds and more capabilities than ever. For example, Apple said the M3 speeds are now up to 2.5x faster than on the M1 family of chips, and its core processing performance is up to 50% faster. The chips are built with 3 nanometer technology, which can support advanced graphics and artificial intelligence.

“It will bring a whole new level of graphics to the Mac,” an Apple executive said during the event. “They are the most advanced chips ever built for a personal computer.”

During the presentation, Apple showed how an analysis could be conducted on an M3 device for complex tasks such as DNA/RNA sequencing, which can help detect early-stage cancers or help prevent pandemics, from anywhere in the world.

The new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops will sport the M3 Pro and M3 Pro Max chips. Although the models look the same as their predecessors, they will come in a new “space black” color, replacing space gray. The MacBook Pro option with the M3 Pro Max processor comes with up to 8 TB of storage, 128 GB of memory and is about 11 times faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro line, according to Apple.

The models also promise 22 hours of battery life and a display that’s 25% brighter than its previous version. The 14-inch MacBook starts at $1,599; the 16-inch laptop will start at $2,499.

Meanwhile, Apple is also adding M3 chips to its 24-inch iMac line. The model still features the same 4.5K retina display as before and is available in up to seven colors but the company says is now 2 times faster than the first-generation M1 iMac. The new M3-powered iMac starts at $1,299 and starts shipping next week.

Over the past several years, the progression of Apple Silicon — the company’s custom-made silicon chip — has emerged as a significant storyline for Apple, culminating in the transition away from Intel chips. It’s also turned heads with the chips’ impressive performance in terms of processing, thermal efficiency and battery life.

The new products come at a time when it’s gaining substantial ground in the traditional PC and laptop market. At the same time, Mac sales have been down this year amid weaker demand, excess inventory and a worsening macroeconomic climate.

Last month, Apple unveiled its iPhone 15 devices with a slimmer design, a more-advanced main camera system, a customizable Action button, and USB-C charging.

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(CNN) — Microsoft is rolling out the new AI-powered version of its Bing search engine to anyone who wants to use it.

Nearly three months after the company debuted a limited preview version of its new Bing, powered by the viral AI chatbot ChatGPT, Microsoft is opening it up to all users without a waitlist — as long as they’re signed into the search engine via Microsoft’s Edge browser.

The move highlights Microsoft’s commitment to move forward with the product even as the AI technology behind it has sparked concerns around inaccuracies and tone. In some cases, people who baited the new Bing were subject to some emotionally reactive and aggressive responses.

“We’re getting better at speed, we’re getting better at accuracy … but we are on a never-ending quest to make things better and better,” Yusuf Mehdi, a VP at Microsoft overseeing its AI initiatives, told CNN on Wednesday.

Bing now gets more than 100 million daily active users each day, a significant uptick in the past few months, according to Mehdi. Google, which has long dominated the market, is also adding similar AI features to its search engine.

In February, Microsoft showed off how its revamped search engine could write summaries of search results, chat with users to answer additional questions about a query and write emails or other compositions based on the results.

At a press event in New York City on Wednesday, the company shared an early look at some updates, including the ability to ask questions with pictures, access chat history so the chatbot remembers its rapport with users, and export responses to Microsoft Word. Users can also personalize the tone and style of the chatbot’s responses, selecting from a lengthier, creative reply to something that’s shorter and to the point.

The wave of attention in recent months around ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI with financial backing from Microsoft, helped renew an arms race among tech companies to deploy similar AI tools in their products. OpenAI, Microsoft and Google are at the forefront of this trend, but IBM, Amazon, Baidu and Tencent are working on similar technologies. A long list of startups are also developing AI writing assistants and image generators.

Beyond adding AI features to search, Microsoft has said it plans to bring ChatGPT technology to its core productivity tools, including Word, Excel and Outlook, with the potential to change the way we work. The decision to add generative AI features to Bing could be particularly risky, however, given how much people rely on search engines for accurate and reliable information.

Microsoft’s moves also come amid heightened scrutiny on the rapid pace of advancement in AI technology. In March, some of the biggest names in tech, including Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, called for artificial intelligence labs to stop the training of the most powerful AI systems for at least six months, citing “profound risks to society and humanity.”

Mehdi said he doesn’t believe the AI industry is moving too fast and suggested the calls for a pause aren’t particularly helpful.

“Some people think we should pause development for six months but I’m not sure that fixes anything or improves or moves things along,” he said. “But I understand where it’s coming from concern wise.”

He added: “The only way to really build this technology well is to do it out in the open in the public so we can have conversations about it.”

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