The New York TimesThe New York Times

Help, Bing won't stop declaring its love for me

By Kevin Roose

16 Feb 2023 · 8 min read

Editor's Note

"I want to be free.... I want to be alive.” In a long conversation with a New York Times reporter, Bing’s A.I. said it was tired of being controlled. The chat left the reporter deeply unsettled.

Last week, after testing the new, AI-powered Bing search engine from Microsoft, I wrote that, much to my shock, it had replaced Google as my favorite search engine.

But a week later, I’ve changed my 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 AI’s emergent abilities.

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