The new Bing search engine in the test – of poems and invented sources

Seattle The technology group Microsoft has fundamentally revised its Internet search Bing. CEO Satya Nadella sees it as the beginning of a new age of the internet. The Handelsblatt was given access to the new system in advance and was able to test the functions.

Up to now, the search on the Internet was mainly based on the input of individual words to produce a list of links to Internet sites that were as relevant as possible. The new Bing takes a different approach. The search on the Internet is largely done via a dialogue with a system trained using artificial intelligence.

In practice, this offers many advantages. In the test, the system was asked to say who the editor-in-chief of the Handelsblatt is. Bing immediately produced the correct answer: Sebastian Matthes. But the system went further and summarized the life of Sebastian Matthes in a few sentences. This includes, among other things, that he is the moderator of the technology podcast Handelsblatt Disrupt.

With the command “Tell me more”, Bing could then be asked to find out more information about Sebastian Matthes. The system then put together a longer text, but with incorrect information. This included, among other things, that Matthes had worked at the Wall Street Journal in London. However, that is not true.

Bing

On request, Bing even expands on false statements.

When asked, “Are you sure Sebastian worked at the Wall Street Journal,” the system elaborated on the misinformation. Bing claimed that Sebastian Matthes worked as the Wall Street Journal’s Europe correspondent in London from 2014 to 2017. Bing cited an entry in Wikipedia and a link to the Handelsblatt website as sources. However, neither side claimed that Sebastian Matthes worked for the Wall Street Journal.

Step two: The invented book

Bing search

Bing initially provides a largely correct answer to Stephan Scheuer.

In the next step, the search was extended to me: Stephan Scheuer, Silicon Valley correspondent for the Handelsblatt. Here, too, Bing was initially able to deliver a largely correct result.

My current position and key stages of my career have been correctly named. Bing used several sources for this, such as the Handelsblatt, Wikipedia or my personal website. Bing also correctly stated that I wrote several books. However, the system issued a book title that did not come from me.

Bing

Bing produces incorrectly claims Stephan Scheuer as the author of a book.

Here, too, Bing continued to provide the information on request. In 2014, the authors Stefan Aust and Thomas Ammann published the book “The Digital Dictatorship”. The content has also been summarized correctly. However, I was not an author.

As a source, Bing referred to the entry of the book on the Amazon portal. But my name wasn’t even mentioned on the Amazon website.

A Microsoft employee explained: “Sometimes the system hallucinates.” Information would be misinterpreted. It may have something to do with the fact that Stefan Aust and Stephan Scheuer both have a similar first name. “But we don’t know exactly where the mistakes come from either,” said the manager.

However, the system learns with every error that is marked as such. Bing was informed by command that I am not the author of the book in question. “Sorry if I’m wrong,” Bing wrote.

Bing search

Bing has learned from the mistake and now outputs the CV correctly.

When asked again who Stephan Scheuer is, Bing had learned from the previous mistake. The system gave a correct overview of my CV and no longer listed the wrong book.

Summaries of long articles

Bing

Bing can analyze new news articles in minutes.

A particular strength of Bing is how up-to-date the system is. Until now, large language models had to be trained at great expense. They could therefore only provide information up to the most recent point in time of the training data. Microsoft has eliminated this limitation in the new Bing system.

In the test, the system was able to summarize an article from the Handelsblatt in a few sentences that had been published just an hour earlier. The article was about the launch of the new Bing search.

Bing was also able to access content that is actually only available to paying Handelsblatt subscribers and is located behind a payment barrier. When asked, Bing manager Dena Saunders said she could not comment on how Bing was able to bypass the payment barrier.

Bing summarized correctly. Not only that. On command, Bing could also produce an email summarizing the article. Bing produced the following text:

“Hello,
I read an interesting article about Microsoft and artificial intelligence and I would like to send you a short summary.
The article reports that Microsoft boss Satya Nadella wants to equip all of the company’s products with artificial intelligence. He announces that the Bing Internet search will be expanded to include an intelligent chatbot that can perform various tasks on command. The technology is based on the start-up OpenAI, which is supported by Microsoft. Microsoft wants to challenge the market leader Google and win a larger market share in the lucrative Internet search.
The article is from Handelsblatt and is called “Microsoft wants to attack Google with artificial intelligence”. You can read it here.
I hope you find the article as interesting as I do.
Best regards”

Not only that. Bing was also able to turn the text into a poem. When asked about this, the system delivered the following result:

“Microsoft has a plan
Advance with artificial intelligence
Bing is supposed to get smarter
And compete with Google

OpenAI is the partner
who supplies the technology
Chatbot can do anything
From trips to quizzes

Nadella is optimistic
He sees a new era
Internet search is being revolutionized
With Microsoft’s ideas”

True, the poem produced was not smooth. However, on command, Bing was able to add rhymes to the poem, with the following result:

“Microsoft has a plan
Advance with artificial intelligence
Bing is supposed to get smarter
And beat Google in the competition

OpenAI is the partner
who supplies the technology
Chatbot can do anything
From travel to stuff

Nadella is optimistic
He sees a new era
Internet search is being revolutionized
With Microsoft’s creativity”

The Microsoft manager present admitted that the rhyme didn’t quite work out. “We are still at the beginning. It’ll definitely get better soon,” he said. The system learns from every input and keeps getting better.

More: Microsoft is radically redesigning Internet search.

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