Microsoft lets ChatGPT-powered Bing off its leash I just hope it doesnt backfire

Date:
Wed, 08 Mar 2023 12:59:20 +0000

Description:
Microsoft expands ChatGPT-powered Bings AI chat limit to 120 chats a day but has it fixed the underlying issues?

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Microsoft has boosted its Bing search engine, to which it recently added artificial intelligence-powered chat capabilities , by increasing the number of chats it can have with a user in a day from 100 to 120.

When Microsoft first introduced Bings new feature, which is based on the popular ChatGPT chatbot, there was a lot of initial excitement but then Bing started behaving strangely. People noticed that Bings AI chatbot would start acting increasingly bizarrely the longer their conversations with it went on.

This included Bing giving out incorrect information, and then having what can only be described as a tantrum when its errors were pointed out, which led to Microsoft hastily limiting the amount of responses Bing could give within a chat in a bid to curtail those worrying conversations.

It worked, but it came at a cost, as Bing suddenly became a lot more boring. Fixing the chat

The last thing Microsoft wants is for Bing to be considered boring again, so its been understandably keen to increase the chat limit once the bugs have been ironed out, so the news that it is offering a big increase to 120, which follows an increase from 60 to 100, is certainly welcome.

Also, Microsofts initial limit to just five replies was seen by many to be
too drastic it certainly limited the usefulness of Bing by cutting chats short and it took the fun out of it as well.

As MSPoweruser reports , Microsofts head of advertising and web services, Mikhail Parakhin, explained on Twitter that, in addition to the increased
chat limit, users will now be able to have a conversation depth of eight the limit was briefly increased from five to eight, before it was dropped back to six. Since multiple people reached out: yesterday's Bing Chat limit switching to 6 was a regression. We should be mostly back to the normal depth 8, total 120/day. Sorry about that! Seems to be holding up fine, hope to increase
again soon. March 7, 2023 See more

Initial reports, as mentioned by Parakhin, suggest Bing is holding up well following this increase, and Microsofts softly-softly approach to expanding Bings AI chat capabilities is certainly sensible.

This whole saga does show the risks of rolling out AI features, however. Microsoft was too cavalier when it first introduced the new Bing chatbot, and then too conservative in response to the embarrassing issues that emerged. I think it should have started lower, and slowly built up Bings responses.

However, Microsoft clearly doesnt want to move too slowly, for fear that people will lose interest in Bing something the company has had to struggle with in the past, with most people using its chief competitor Google instead.

But going too fast too soon also brings risks. If Microsoft hasnt properly fixed the underlying issues, we may see a return of Bings stranger side, and as entertaining as that can be, it could lead to a real PR headache for Microsoft.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/microsoft-lets-chatgpt-powered-bing-off-its-lea sh-i-just-hope-it-doesnt-backfire


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