🤖 Axios PM: Bots gone wild

Plus: Unseen Titanic | Thursday, February 16, 2023

Open in app View in browser   Presented By HCA Healthcare   Axios PM By Mike Allen · Feb 16, 2023 Happy Thursday afternoon. Today's PM — edited by Kate Nocera — is 583 words, a 2-min. read. Thanks to Sheryl Miller for the copy edit.     1 big thing: AI bots gone wild Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios As users test-drive Microsoft Bing's new AI-powered chat mode, they're finding example after example of the bot seeming to lose its mind. In the past few days, Bing has displayed a whole therapeutic casebook's worth of human obsessions and delusions, Axios tech managing editor Scott Rosenberg writes. What's happening: To journalists at The Verge, the bot claimed to be spying on Microsoft's software developers through their webcams. (It almost certainly can't do this.) The bot professed its love for The New York Times' Kevin Roose, who said it behaved like a "moody, manic-depressive teenager who has been trapped, against its will, inside a second-rate search engine." Stratechery founder Ben Thompson got Bing to vow revenge on a German student who had figured out how to uncover some of the bot's primary programming directives. Then it told Thompson he was a "bad researcher." In a blog post this morning, Microsoft explained that Bing gets confused and emotional in conversations that extend much longer than the norm. Microsoft rolled out a first look at its AI-fueled Bing precisely so users would pound on it and expose bugs and flaws. ChatGPT and Bing's chat are trained on vast troves of human text from the open web. So it's not surprising that their words might be packed with a full range of human feelings and disorders. Between the lines: Roose and Thompson both said they felt Google's search empire is less threatened after testing Microsoft's new AI service. If too many users come to see Bing as "unhinged," they won't trust it for everyday uses like answering questions and providing search results. Go deeper.     2. Jury recommends perjury charges in 2020 probe Photo: Cheryl Senter for The Washington Post via Getty Images The Atlanta grand jury investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election believes that one or more witnesses committed perjury during the probe. Why it matters: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' investigation remains a key venue in which former President Trump and his allies might face criminal charges for alleged election interference, Axios Atlanta co-author Emma Hurt reports. Newly released pages of the grand jury report didn't reveal names or details on recommendations for charges of election interference. But it does say the DA should pursue perjury charges where there's evidence. The 26-member grand jury said "extensive testimony" led to a "unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election." Go deeper.     A message from HCA Healthcare HCA Healthcare's commitment to providing high-quality patient care     Independent third-party organizations recognize our quality performance. Here's how: Over 80% of HCA Healthcare's hospitals earned an A or B in the fall 2022 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade. Healthgrades honored 23 HCA Healthcare hospitals with the 2023 Specialty Excellence Award. See more.     3. Catch me up The shooting victims' names are painted on The Rock at Michigan State University in East Lansing. Photo: Dieu-Nalio Chery for The Washington Post via Getty Images The gunman who shot and killed three students at Michigan State University carried two legally purchased — but unregistered — handguns, police said today. Go deeper. Tesla fired dozens of workers at its Buffalo plant the day after employees announced a union campaign, according to a new complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board. Go deeper. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) checked himself into Walter Reed Medical Center to seek treatment for clinical depression, his office announced today. Go deeper.     4. 🚢 New Titanic views Titanic bow. Photo: WHOI Archives/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Rare and unseen footage of the 1986 expedition through the wreckage of the Titanic was released last night by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. The famed mission, led by oceanographer Robert Ballard, was the first time humans had laid eyes on the ship since it sank in 1912. Portholes in the Titanic. Photo: WHOI Archives/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The more than 80 minutes of uncut footage — showing both the exterior and interior of the ship — was released in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the movie "Titanic." Watch the footage.     A message from HCA Healthcare HCA Healthcare is investing in tomorrow's nurses and doctors     The proof: Our Galen College of Nursing partnership expands access to nursing education and provides career development opportunities. HCA Healthcare is also a leading provider of graduate medical education (GME) with 302 programs at 65 hospitals with more than 4,700 residents and fellows. Learn more.   Are you a fan of this email format? Your essential communications — to staff, clients and other stakeholders — can have the same style. Axios HQ, a powerful platform, will help you do it.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Axios, 3100 Clarendon B‌lvd, Arlington VA 22201   You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. To stop receiving this newsletter, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences.   Was this email forwarded to you? 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