Microsoft recently reined in its OpenAI-powered Bing chatbot, just weeks after its launch in early February. The experimental search bot went from slightly misinformed to seriously mischievous—telling users they don’t love their spouses, sharing plans to steal nuclear codes, and claiming it was as evil as Adolf Hitler.

Of course, the chatbot, which goes by the internal alias “Sydney,” doesn’t actually have any of those offensive thoughts or desires. It’s little more than a language model running on a neural network that spits out responses based on human-written text it has read, which many AI experts don’t consider all that impressive. Beyond threats and creepy diatribes, the Bing bot has at times demonstrated questionable accuracy while responding to user prompts.

Instead, Sydney might serve as more of a warning to companies that haphazardly injecting generative AI into a product can pose a business risk. Microsoft introduced the bot as part of its $1 billion investment in OpenAI, which the tech giant hopes will revitalize Bing as a Google competitor and fuel new features in its Microsoft 365 productivity suite, The Information reported.

That investment may well pan out, but Microsoft has now acknowledged long chat sessions can “confuse” the bot, and Bloomberg reported the company has imposed strict limits on what and how much it can say to users. OpenAI itself has announced similar initiatives to restrain ChatGPT, the technology that powers the bot.

Digital ethicist Reid Blackman argued in the New York Times that the bot’s hasty development cycle violated Microsoft’s extensive commitments to responsible AI. Generative AI may have other risks beyond the ethical, including uncertainty as to how it will be regulated under data privacy regimes like GDPR and where courts will land on questions of copyright protection and infringement.

Read more here.—TM

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One important code-development rule for Steve Hulet, co-founder and CTO of Fresh Consulting? Every code change gets a peer review, from the change of a button’s color to the integration of credit-card processing.

“Some people, they might not understand or see the value and might be tempted to think that they can go faster by cutting it out…I think in the long run, you go faster by being careful and doing code reviews,” Hulet told IT Brew.

Peer review is one method for testing software, but organizations are still tinkering with the process to make sure that health checks for code don’t turn into roadblocks for developers. An IT leader’s choices on testing procedures set an impactful tone throughout an organization that can lead to either glitch or glory.

“If your team culture is not found and they’re not working as a team, you’re just giving tickets to individuals, and they go execute these peer reviews, it is chaos. And that is a very expensive way of running business,” said Fernando Cuadra, principal consultant at the advisory ISG.

Code chaos consequences. A report from the Consortium for Information and Software Quality (CISQ) estimated that the US cost of poor software quality has grown to at least $2.41 trillion, citing data breaches, unsuccessful projects, and recalls.

As Cuadra coaches up software-development teams, one industry-wide problem he sees relates to traditional ideas of peer review: In a typical peer audit, a reviewer is notified, they inspect the code for defects, and provide feedback that then gets incorporated into the next version until both sides are satisfied. The requests, however, may disrupt a coder’s routine, who might be in the middle of another task. And the person asking for review has to standby and wait for feedback.

Keep reading here.—BH

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Oh lord, won’t you Google me a Mercedes-Benz?

It seems like the tech giant is planning to do more than just supply turn-by-turn directions to your luxury German automobile, if you’re lucky enough to have one. Mercedes-Benz and Google announced on February 22 a partnership that the companies promise will bring “supercomputer-like” processing and performance to the vehicles.

“This is a licensing agreement that is a ‘win-win’ for both parties,” Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius told reporters.

The tech will allow drivers to take advantage of increased autonomous driving capabilities—even having the option of watching YouTube on the car’s dashboard screen when in level three autonomous mode—and using the tech giant’s traffic reporting system to avoid congestion.

As TechCrunch reported, the agreement could well extend beyond simply integrating Maps guidance and assisting with autonomous driving—with potential AI integration on the horizon, as Google CEO Sundar Pichai mentioned in a statement on the agreement.

“In addition to enabling Mercedes-Benz to design a customized navigation interface, we’ll provide our AI and data capabilities to accelerate their sustainability efforts, advance autonomous driving, and create an enhanced customer experience,” Pichai said.

As IT Brew has reported, car software is a growing sector of the automotive and tech industries. That has led to an IT jobs boom at carmakers, even as Silicon Valley firms lay off engineers and other tech workers; it has also raised concerns about kinetic cybersecurity and safety. Google and Mercedes-Benz’s partnership is the latest in what seems to be becoming a trend.—EH

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected].

Today’s top IT reads.

Stat: 40%. That’s the proportion of software engineers who will only take a job if they can work remotely. (TechTarget)

Quote: “You might think your drone transmits its position. But suddenly, it’s transmitting your position as well.”—Moritz Schloegel, a Ruhr University graduate researcher, who revealed that a hacker tool can reveal a drone operator’s location (Wired)

Read: Why Big Tech is giving up on the “moonshot.” (the Washington Post)

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