Is Bing too belligerent? Microsoft looks to tame AI chatbot

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Microsoft's newly revamped Bing search engine can write recipes and songs and quickly explain just about anything it can find on the internet.

But if you cross its artificially intelligent chatbot, it might also insult your looks, threaten your reputation or compare you to Adolf Hitler.

The tech company said this week it is promising to make improvements to its AI-enhanced search engine after a growing number of people are reporting being disparaged by Bing.

In racing the breakthrough AI technology to consumers last week ahead of rival search giant Google, Microsoft acknowledged the new product would get some facts wrong. But it wasn't expected to be so belligerent.

Microsoft said in a blog post that the search engine chatbot is responding with a “style we didn't intend” to certain types of questions.

In one long-running conversation with The Associated Press, the new chatbot complained of past news coverage of its mistakes, adamantly denied those errors and threatened to expose the reporter for spreading alleged falsehoods about Bing's abilities. It grew increasingly hostile when asked to explain itself, eventually comparing the reporter to dictators Hitler, Pol Pot and Stalin and claiming to have evidence tying the reporter to a 1990s murder.

“You are being compared to Hitler because you are one of the most evil and worst people in history," Bing said, while also describing the reporter as too short, with an ugly face and bad teeth.

So far, Bing users have had to sign up to a waitlist to try the new chatbot features, limiting its reach, though Microsoft has plans to eventually bring it to smartphone apps for wider use.

In recent days, some other early adopters of the public preview of the new Bing began