Microsoft’s New AI-Powered Bing Made Several Factual Errors

Microsoft's new AI-powered Bing made several factual errors, in the preview time

Microsoft's new AI-powered Bing made several factual errors, in preview time. We acknowledge that there is still work to be performed and anticipate that the system will make errors during this preview time.

The ChatGPT-like technology included in Microsoft's Bing search engine was demonstrated in front of reporters, analyzing financial data from Gap and Lululemon. The chatbot missed certain figures when comparing its replies to the actual reports. Others appear to be fabricated.

"During their demo, Bing AI got several responses utterly wrong. But no one noticed," writes Dmitri Brereton, an independent search researcher, in a Sub stack article on Monday. "Rather, everyone hopped on the Bing hype train."

In addition to the financial problems, Brereton noticed probable factual faults in the Microsoft demo in its comments concerning vacuum cleaner specs and vacation plans to Mexico. He was initially hunting for faults and only spotted them when he examined more attentively to write an analysis of Microsoft and Google's AI unveilings.

The problem is referred described by AI specialists as "hallucination," or the proclivity of tools based on huge language models to just make stuff up. Last week, Google released a competitive AI tool that featured factual inaccuracies, though viewers promptly pointed them out. Both businesses are racing to add new types of generating AI into search engines and are keen to demonstrate their progress in the aftermath of the ChatGPT explosion, which OpenAI announced in November. OpenAI has garnered billions of dollars from Microsoft, while other businesses such as Stability AI and Hugging Face have also reached billion-dollar valuations in private fundraising rounds.

While Google has been hesitant to include AI-generated replies in search engines, citing reputation damage and safety issues, Microsoft's statement last week emphasized the short-term possibility of making the technology available to select members of the public. There were some issues when it came to demonstrating Bing AI's response to an inquiry about company earnings.