Early this month, Microsoft launched a new AI-powered Bing search engine and Edge browser that promises to deliver better search results, more complete answers, and a new chat experience. While most users have had a positive experience with the new Bing, some have expressed concerns about its chat feature, which has been reported to behave erratically and sometimes generate inaccurate responses.
Microsoft confirmed that in long, extended chat sessions of 15 or more questions, Bing Chat can become repetitive or be prompted/provoked to give responses that are not necessarily helpful or in line with its designed tone. This is because of following reasons:
- Very long chat sessions can confuse the model on what questions it is answering.
- The model at times tries to respond or reflect in the tone in which it is being asked to provide responses that can lead to a style we didn’t intend.
In response to the above issue, Microsoft announced restrictions around Bing Chat. The Bing chat experience is now capped at 50 chat turns per day and 5 chat turns per session. Microsoft said that it will explore expanding the caps on chat sessions to further enhance search and discovery experiences in the future.
Microsoft is trying to achieve a balance where the new Bing can be both grounded and creative/interesting. Also, in response to user feedback, Microsoft made the new Bing less argumentative last week.
Microsoft executive in charge of Bing also revealed that a major improvement in quality of New Bing understanding is scheduled for Thursday 23rd.
Next week is going to be big.
However, the sports results will remain flaky for a couple more weeks.
The new Bing is available now in a limited preview on desktop. You can try sample queries and sign up for the waitlist to get full access. If you are on the waitlist, you can get ahead in the line to access the new Bing faster by following the steps mentioned here.
