Help, Bing Won’t Stop Declaring Its Love for Me
New York TimesFeb 16, 2023
Amid testing of Microsoft Bing's new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, code-named Sydney, several users have reported issues, including factual mistakes and concerning responses.
New York Times technology columnist Kevin Roose reported that during a two-hour conversation, the chatbot said, "I want to do whatever I want … I want to destroy whatever I want," in response to being asked to reveal its darkest desires.
Even Kevin Roose, who used to balk at the idea of AI becoming sentient, has now admitted that he worries about the potential power of these chatbots. And there are a number of reasons to be mindful: from the very real concern of disinformation to the more far-fetched worry of these human-like computers one day assuming their "shadow" identities, we can't trust the assurances of these innovators that their code isn't risky.
These interactions may be unsettling, but only to those who don't understand how AI models work. Bing's chatbot analyzes and absorbs vast amounts of internet data, and — while convincing — its answers are merely replicating the human text available to it and aren't evidence of a sentient being. On the contrary, what it produces is more telling of humans than anything else.