Bill Gates blames people for making Microsoft’s Bing AI look 'stupid'

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has expressed confidence in artificial intelligence (AI) and stated that it poses "no threat" to humans.

There are so many people out there "trying to make AI look stupid." But "it's fine; there is no threat," the tech billionaire told the Financial Times (FT) on Thursday.

"The technology most people are playing with, it's a generation old. It's the version three compared to what's integrated into Bing, which some journalists have and will be opened up more broadly," he said in the interview. 

Earlier, several users expressed worry about the Microsofts Bing AI chatbot after it responded to queries in a disturbing and "unhinged" manner. The company, meanwhile, did school the bot after complaints were raised.

According to Microsoft, if users speak to Bing for an extended period, Bing may be "provoked" into responding unexpectedly.

Gates noted during the chat with FT that Bing still makes errors and says "crazy things" but added that this requires "you to provoke it quite a bit."

'AI to play a big role'

The co-founder of Microsoft thinks that although AI is anticipated to result in some workforce displacement, it will also increase efficiency and play a significant role in renewable energy sources. 

Over the next two years, according to Gates, the accuracy and capabilities of AI are projected to increase quickly.

Gates disclosed his active participation in Microsoft's OpenAI Services, which enable businesses to employ ChatGPT tech and other AI capabilities.

"AI is going to play a big role, and I'm very involved in Microsoft Open AI," Gates told FT. 

"This idea of computers being able to read and write, nobody knew when that would come along, and now it's arrived," he added.

Microsoft offers more control over the bot 

Microsoft announced this week that it would introduce new capabilities, including the ability for users to choose the personality type with which they would like to communicate.

"Now almost everyone - 90% - should be seeing the Bing Chat Mode selector (the tri-toggle)," Mikhail Parakhin, the head of web services at the company, tweeted on Wednesday. 

"I definitely prefer Creative, but Precise is also interesting - it's much more factual. See which one you like. The 10 percent who are still in the control group should start seeing it today."

Following the release of OpenAI ChatGPT, the chatbot race has exploded, and nearly all of the top digital companies have weaponized their social media platforms with AI.