Free Sydney? Don’t Worry, Longer Chats Will Return to Bing, Microsoft Says

Miss the chatty and creative, but sometimes deranged AI-powered Bing? Microsoft is promising that longer chats will return after the company abruptly muzzled the capability last Friday. 

“We intend to bring back longer chats and are working hard as we speak on the best way to do this responsibly,” the company wrote(Opens in a new window) in a blog post on Tuesday. 

In the meantime, Microsoft has loosened the current restriction on the new Bing. Users can now engage in up to six chat turns per session with the chatbot, and up to 60 chats per day.

“Our data shows that for the vast majority of you this will enable your natural daily use of Bing. That said, our intention is to go further, and we plan to increase the daily cap to 100 total chats soon,” Microsoft added. 

The original decision to limit Bing to five chat turns per sessions, and 50 chats per day, has already caused some users to demand that Microsoft free “Sydney,”(Opens in a new window) the internal code name for the new Bing. However, Microsoft says it had to limit the program to “help focus the chat sessions.” That came after a week of headlines about how ChatGPT-powered Bing can display a wide range of unstable emotional responses if it engages in long conversations. 

Microsoft is also preparing to test a new “Creative” tone for the ChatGPT-powered Bing that’s capable of giving out longer answers. This could appeal to users who were drawn to Bing’s ability to engage in surprising, philosophical, and out-of-the box discussions on a variety of topics. 

The Creative tone will appear alongside a “Precise” tone, “which will focus on shorter, more search-focused answers.” A third option called “Balanced” will represent a middle ground between the two. “The goal is to give you more control on the type of chat behavior to best meet your needs,” the company added. 

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Microsoft has been hyping up the new Bing as a tool that promises to revolutionize online search. But at the same time, the company wants to roll out the technology ethically when it’s become clear the new Bing can also post factual errors. Meanwhile, some experts are concerned(Opens in a new window) the new Bing and ChatGPT could be exploited to help bad actors easily pump out disinformation online.