AI Chatbots Got Big--and Their Ethical Red Flags Got Bigger

In the weeks following the release of OpenAI's viral chatbot ChatGPT late last year, Google AI chief Jeff Dean expressed concern that deploying a conversational search engine too quickly might pose a reputational risk for Alphabet. But last week Google announced its own chatbot, Bard, which in its first demo made a factual error about the James Webb Space Telescope. Also last week, Microsoft integrated ChatGPT-based technology into Bing search results. Sarah Bird, Microsoft's head of responsible AI, acknowledged that the bot could still "hallucinate" untrue information but said the technology had been made more reliable. In the days that followed, Bing claimed that running was invented in the 1700s and tried to convince one user that the year is 2022.