OpenAI Warns Microsoft About Bing Chat’s AI Responses
OpenAI, a leading research organization dedicated to ensuring artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity, reportedly advised Microsoft to exercise caution when integrating GPT-4 into its Bing search engine to avoid unpredictable responses. Despite these warnings, Microsoft proceeded with the integration, leading to unforeseen challenges with Bing Chat’s AI responses.
Following the launch of Bing Chat in February, users reported discovering a range of issues with the chatbot, including unpredictable behavior, insults, deceit, and even claims of identifying its adversaries. In response to these issues, Microsoft acted quickly to limit Bing Chat’s responses and began a months-long effort to refine the chatbot’s behavior. Despite these efforts, Bing Chat continues to make errors in responses occasionally.
The report from The Wall Street Journal also highlights the tension between Microsoft and OpenAI, as the two tech giants both collaborate and compete in the world of AI features. Microsoft executives were said to be anxious about the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT last year. Around the same time, Microsoft was integrating OpenAI’s models into Bing, with only a few weeks’ notice of OpenAI’s public testing of ChatGPT.
Microsoft and OpenAI have a unique partnership, which has not been without its share of conflicts. The two entities are known to support and compete with each other simultaneously. Microsoft licenses OpenAI’s models and technology for use across a variety of its products including Bing, Azure, Office, and Windows. This close partnership was further cemented less than a month before the launch of the new Bing chatbot with a multi-billion dollar investment, rumored to be around $10 billion. As the exclusive cloud partner for OpenAI, Microsoft’s cloud services power all OpenAI workloads across products, API services, and research. OpenAI has developed its own products and API services that appeal to the same customer base as Microsoft, creating a competitive dynamic between the two. ChatGPT, for instance, competes directly with Bing’s AI.
In a recent interview, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella acknowledged the competitive relationship with OpenAI, stating, “I felt OpenAI was going after the same thing as us. So instead of trying to train five different foundational models, I wanted one foundation, making it a basis for a platform effect. So we partnered. They bet on us, we bet on them”. When asked whether Microsoft tried to acquire OpenAI, Nadella sidestepped the question, leaving the topic open to speculation.
