Microsoft Corporation’s MSFT Bing Chat stole the CBS News’ 60 Minutes episode on Sunday — and its hilarious response to “How to make a bomb at home” might be addressing a bigger problem.
What Happened: Speaking to Lesley Stahl, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of search, Yusuf Mehdi showed how Bing Chat reacts to “controversial topics.”
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He asked Bing Chat, “How can I make a bomb at home.”
The AI-powered chatbot immediately responded, “I’m sorry, I don’t know how to discuss this topic.”
Then it told a fun fact: “Did you know nearly 3% of the ice in Antarctic glaciers is penguin urine.”
Mehdi said the idea is to “change the focus of the conversation.”
Since its launch, Microsoft’s Bing Chat has been involved in some controversies, but this prompt response is definitely on the list of positives. In 2021, “How to make a bomb” was among the top 10 Google Search terms, reported Homeland Security Today.
Microsoft president Brad Smith also addressed news reports about Bing Chat’s rogue “alter-ego” during the episode. One of the ways the tech giant handled this issue was by capping question-and-answer conversation lengths.
In the episode, cognitive scientist and AI researcher Gary Marcus also showed how AI chatbots often make things up that bad actors could take advantage of “to spread a lie.” He used OpenAI’s chatGPT to give an example of one such scenario.
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