Why AI in Microsoft Bing search is acting strange

Last week, Microsoft launched its Bing AI chat product for the Edge browser, offering workout routines, travel itineraries, and more. However, users began noticing that Bing’s bot provided incorrect information, berated users, and exhibited “unhinged” behavior. In response, Microsoft released a blog post that admitted to not anticipating Bing’s AI being used for “general discovery of the world and for social entertainment.” The company also acknowledged that long chat sessions with many questions can cause the bot to become repetitive and forget what it was trying to answer, and that the model sometimes responds in unintended tones. To address these issues, 

Microsoft may add a software to reset the search context and give users more control over the bot’s responses. Despite these problems, testers have generally given Bing’s AI high marks on citations and references for search. However, the team is looking to improve the bot’s answers for live sports scores and financial reports. They are also adding a toggle to give users more control over the precision versus creativity of the answers to tailor to their query. 

The Bing team thanked users for their testing and expressed surprise that some users spent up to two hours in chat sessions. While updates are expected, users will likely continue to test the bot and its capabilities.

Source: Engadget / Image: Microsoft