• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, February 21, 2023

Microsoft capped its Bing chat sessions at 50 questions per day and five turns per session -- defining “turn” as a conversation exchange in the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot containing a user question and a reply from Bing.

The change was made after early adopters complained of disturbing and biased conversations.

Company data showed that a majority of those who are testing the platform can find answers within five turns and only about 1% of chat conversations have 50 or more messages.

Now, after a chat session hits five turns, the technology prompts the user to start a new topic by clicking on the topic tag.

Microsoft suggested clearing the context at the end of each chat session, so the model does not become confused. Users should click on the broom icon to the left of the search box for a fresh start.

While Microsoft said in a prior post that it did not anticipate this problem, there have been many examples of disturbing conversations and bias.

Sam Altman, CEO at OpenAI, which created the technology behind the chatbot, during the weekend pointed to “more challenges like bias.”

He tweeted that ChatGPT should not have a bias. He said the company is working on making that change, along with any changes that might make people come away from a discussion with the bot feeling “unsettled.”

“We think showing these tools to the world early, while still somewhat broken, is critical if we are going to have sufficient input and repeated efforts to get it right,” Altman tweeted. “The level of individual empowerment coming is wonderful, but not without serious challenges.”

He also said the industry needs time for institutions to determine what to regulate, which will become a critical consideration.