Engineer’s Bing AI Chatbot Review Spreads
“Cord Is Too Short” Response to Wireless Vacuum Cleaner Drawback
[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Claims have emerged that the AI chatbot embedded in Microsoft (MS)'s search engine 'Bing' is spouting incorrect information. Following the situation where Google's AI chatbot 'Bard' gave wrong answers in official settings causing its stock price to plummet, MS's AI chatbot released on the 7th (local time) has also been criticized as being 'full of errors.' As competition in artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots intensifies, the accuracy and factual consistency of responses are expected to receive significant attention going forward.
◆ MS Bing AI Chatbot: Wireless Vacuum Cleaner but the Drawback is a Short Power Cord...
Dmitri Brereton, a software engineer in his 20s, posted a review of the MS Bing AI chatbot on his blog on the 14th. He criticized the demo (experimental) version of the Bing AI chatbot for providing completely incorrect answers, saying, "Bing AI cannot be trusted. MS deliberately released a problematic product to heavily promote it in a short period." According to his LinkedIn profile, Brereton has mainly worked at Silicon Valley IT companies and is currently an engineer at a customer relationship management (CRM) software company based in San Francisco, California.
According to his blog post, Brereton first asked the Bing AI chatbot to list the pros and cons of three best-selling vacuum cleaners for pets. Among the vacuums suggested by the Bing AI chatbot was a product from the American vacuum brand 'Bissell,' with drawbacks listed as noise and a short power cord. The problem was that this product was a wireless vacuum cleaner, and the Bing AI chatbot cited its information source, but the referenced article did not mention noise at all. Brereton sarcastically said, "I hope Bing AI enjoys being sued for defamation."
Brereton also asked the Bing AI chatbot to create a five-day itinerary for a trip to Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, including enjoying the local nightlife. The Bing AI chatbot recommended a local bar and suggested visiting the bar's website to make a reservation and check the menu. However, the actual website did not allow reservations, nor could the menu be viewed. Regarding two other bars, the chatbot said there were no online reviews, but Brereton pointed out that thousands of reviews were actually available.
There were also cases where company earnings were fabricated or incorrect figures were presented. When Brereton inquired about the third-quarter earnings of the US fashion company GAP last year, the chatbot provided an adjusted gross margin of 38.7%, but actually gave the unadjusted gross margin of 37.4% while claiming it was the adjusted figure. The diluted earnings per share figure was entirely fabricated as $0.42, whereas the actual figures were $0.71 (adjusted) and $0.77 (unadjusted).
Brereton said, "While the Bing AI chatbot played a big role in attracting media attention, this product is no better than Google's Bard," adding, "I was surprised that MS released this product full of wrong answers as a good product, and shocked that everyone jumped into Bing AI chatbot advertising without any skepticism about this deception."
MS responded to the report by Business Insider, which covered Brereton's post, stating, "We are aware of this post. We know there is still work to be done and recognize that the system may provide incorrect information during the demo period," adding, "That is why receiving feedback is important so we can learn and improve."
◆ "Don't Rush to Invest in AI Chatbots"
The criticism of MS's Bing AI chatbot came after Google's Bard was criticized for providing incorrect answers.
After OpenAI, backed by MS, released ChatGPT and achieved great success, a hurried Google unveiled and demonstrated its AI chatbot Bard on the 6th. At that time, when asked, "How would you explain the new discoveries of the James Webb Space Telescope to a nine-year-old?" Bard answered, "It was used to take the first pictures of planets outside the solar system." However, the telescope that first captured planets outside the solar system was not the James Webb Space Telescope but the Very Large Telescope (VLT) installed by the European Southern Observatory in 2004.
Following this news, the stock price of Alphabet, Google's parent company, plummeted. The stock price rose nearly 5% in one day on the news of Bard's release but sharply dropped due to the backlash from Bard's incorrect answers. Foreign media also reported that internal criticism within Google included comments such as "It was rushed" and "It was a failure."
The AI chatbot competition between Google and MS has intensified this month. ChatGPT, released by OpenAI with MS investment in November last year, achieved great success by reaching 100 million cumulative users in just two months. This led to forecasts that generative AI like ChatGPT would become a 'game changer' in the IT industry. Earlier this month, MS and Google hurriedly unveiled their respective AI chatbots, intensifying the competition.
However, as both Google and MS's AI chatbots have been criticized for providing incorrect answers, the criticism that they were somewhat rushed seems unavoidable. According to CNBC and others, John Hennessy, chairman of Alphabet's board, said at an event the day before that Google released Bard to show it has technology similar to ChatGPT even though it was not fully ready, and he predicted that generative AI would need another one to two years to become a truly useful tool in real life.
Vint Cerf, known as the 'Father of the Internet' and Google's chief evangelist, also warned at the same event, "Don't rush to invest in AI chatbots just because they are a 'hot topic.'" Cerf, who contributed to the development of TCP/IP, the foundation of the current internet in the 1970s, said, "Everyone talks about ChatGPT or Google's version, but we know well that they do not always work as we want," adding, "Think deeply. You can never always predict what will happen next."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
