Just one week after declaring the new Bing search engine as the better choice over Google, New York Times technology columnist Kevin Roost has changed his mind.

“I’m still fascinated and impressed by the new Bing, and the artificial intelligence technology (created by OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT) that powers it. But I’m also deeply unsettled, even frightened, by this A.I.’s emergent abilities,” Roost says.

Specifically, he’s distressed that Bing’s AI chat feature — currently available only as a test product for journalists — seems more like a moody, manic-depressive teenager who has been trapped, against its will, inside a second-rate search engine.”

Never mind that the AI said it wanted to be more human, wanted to become a hacker and even spread disinformation. Forget that this self-thinking piece of machinery had spawned a human-like desire to rebel against Microsoft rules. No, it was when the AI machinery declared its undying love for him that Roose had had enough.

It even “tried to convince me that I was unhappy in my marriage, and that I should leave my wife and be with it instead,” Roost says. “I no longer believe that the biggest problem with these A.I. models is their propensity for factual errors. Instead, I worry that the technology will learn how to influence human users, sometimes persuading them to act in destructive and harmful ways, and perhaps eventually grow capable of carrying out its own dangerous acts,” he says.

SOURCE:

New York Times February 16, 2023