Microsoft Bing adopted false sexual harassment allegations from ChatGPT

Microsoft Bing chat has taken a false allegation of sexual harassment from ChatGPT, via a news article about the chatbot being wrong. As far as we know, this is the first time that the erroneous claim has spread from one chatbot to another.

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Based on an article on the subject, Bing repeated the allegation that an American professor sexually harassed a student in 2018, writes The Washington Post. In the meantime, Bing seems to have learned that it is wrong, because the Microsoft chatbot cites this very case as an example that not all information that can be found online is accurate or reliable.

It has long been known that OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other chatbots fabricate information, a phenomenon known as ‘hallucination’. Allegations of sexual harassment have major consequences for those involved. Meanwhile, ChatGPT no longer makes up these accusations, but provides an answer that shows that it cannot answer within its own rules.

ChatGPT’s incorrect information ended up in a USA Today column and Bing misinterpreted that column. There have been concerns for some time that chatbots ‘feed’ each other disinformation and fake news, thereby reinforcing them.