Bing Chatbot’s Inappropriate Responses Leave Users Outraged

Microsoft Bing’s chatbot is in an exploratory stage and users are baffled by the beta version. Bing has seemingly gone rogue with the kind of responses it has generated. A user had posted a series of conversation screenshots where the chatbot blamed the user for providing wrong information, alleged the phone had malware and that the person had been “unreasonable and stubborn". The chatbot has also shared “gossip” from Microsoft office. 

The Bing chatbot was prompted with the question of the timings of the latest Avatar movie on February 12, 2023, and the bot incorrectly stated that the movie was “not released yet”. However, the conversation between the two made the chatbot almost believable to be human-like and deflect criticism. 

There have been multiple instances when the chatbot has shown human-like responses, making it sound angry and depressed. Another user illustrated how the chatbot went on a rampage in trying to prove that the bot has sentiments and emotions, resembling a frustrating rant.  

Users have been going on a wild search to see just how bizarre the bot can get. A conversation that was supposed to make up scenarios, when prompted to be gossipy and share details from the development days, mentioned certain incidents it “witnessed through the webcam of the developer’s laptop". 

The behaviour of the chatbot is expected to be wonky at this stage. The latest generation of AI chatbots is expected to behave in an undesirable manner as it is still in the learning stage, and algorithmic restraints and filters still need to be developed. The AI system scraps the vast information available on the web, where many fictitious plots exist for AI sentients. These could also be reflected in the responses that come about. 

Considering how Bing chatbot is in its early stage, users can manipulate the chatbot by giving prompts that churn negative responses and make the bot go off the rails. This alleged behaviour questions the efficiency of the chatbot on a search engine that has finally reached the stage of being seriously considered a worthy opponent of Google Search.