The promises and perils AI-powered search

Tech columnist Kevin Roose's disturbing conversation with Microsoft's newly AI-powered Bing search engine, revealed in The New York Times on Thursday, has sent chills up the spines of many. In the nearly two-hour conversation with Roose, the AI chatbot, which Microsoft revealed last week has been integrated into its Bing search engine, spoke about everything from the destructive acts it would take if it didn't have any rules to what it would do if it could tap into its "shadow self." The conversation devolves into the chatbot, which identifies as Sydney, declaring its love for Roose with a creepy resistance to change the subject, despite multiple attempts by the reporter. After reading the conversation, like many, I'm sure, I felt like I had just watched an episode of Black Mirror -- or, for those of you who will indulge me in the reference, was transported back to 2001 to have a conversation on AIM with Smarterchild. But nestled towards the end of the chat, there's a glimmer of the potential positives of AI-powered search.