Microsoft Backpedals On Bing Chatbot Just Days After Putting AI In Timeout

Just days after Microsoft placed limits on its Bing AI chatbot, the company announces that it intends to bring back longer chats. The software giant made the decision to limit conversations with the chatbot after some disturbing and concerning interactions were recently reported.

AI chatbots are all the rage at the moment, with ChatGPT and Google's Bard being two of the most talked about in recent weeks. However, Microsoft's Bing chatbot garnered some headlines recently as well, as the chatbot seemed to get pushed to its limits during long questioning. During one interaction, the chatbot argued with one user that it was actually 2022 and not 2023, while in another conversation it threatened to expose a user's personal information and reputation to the public.

In response to the disconcerting interactions, Microsoft made the decision to limit users to 5 questions per topic and 50 questions in total each day. The company stated that longer interactions were not anticipated, and that extended chats of more than 15 questions sent the chatbot off the rails. Microsoft added, "Bing can become repetitive or be prompted/provoked to give responses that are not necessarily helpful or in line with our designed tone."

Now it seems, that the company is rethinking its initial reaction to the issue. In a blog post, Microsoft stated that it intended to "bring back longer chats and are working hard as we speak on the best way to do this responsibly." The first step will be bumping the number of questions allowed to 6 per topic and 60 total per day.

Microsoft says that for the vast majority of users, this will be sufficient for the everyday use of Bing. While that may be the case for most, the company says it is not stopping there. It intends to increase the daily cap to 100 in the near future. Once the change is implemented, the user's normal searches will not count against that cap, according to the blog post.

Another interesting change that Microsoft is looking to add is the ability to change the tone of the Chat. Users will be able to choose from Precise, which will give shorter and more search-focused answers, along with Balanced and Creative options. Microsoft said to "stay tuned" as it continues to work on improvements and push out more updates.