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Microsoft’s Bing chatbot has run into trouble with an error popping up for some users, causing their queries to crash and burn – and apparently it’s thanks to the AI’s popularity.
Mikhail Parakhin, head of Advertising and Web Services at Microsoft, tweeted about the error, which informs the user that ‘something went wrong’ when making a search, a rather unhelpful message (and the chatbot doesn’t answer anything other than this) .
Sorry for the “Something went wrong” error message some of you may see on Bing Chat. It is caused by five main factors related to the increased load. We have solutions for three of them and a limitation on the other two. Have patience with us.March 1, 2023
There are quite a few reports of users encountering this error on Twitter (which are still coming in), and Parakhin explains that there are multiple causes associated with “increased load” on the chatbot. In other words, the number of questions sent to the ChatGPT-powered AI causes Bing to occasionally capsize.
Of the five root causes, Parakhin says Microsoft has solutions for three, and is working on the other two.
In short, the cure for this disease is in the pipeline, so if you’re one of the unlucky people who’s encountered this error – and may still get into it – then your troubles should soon be over.
Analysis: Something is being rectified, and hopefully soon
Parakhin has been commendably transparent and kept us updated on what’s going on with the Bing AI, with regular tweets updating us on the ongoing work with the chatbot.
Given that the root causes of this problem have seemingly been nailed down and pinpointed, with workarounds and workarounds, we bet the fix won’t be long in coming – hopefully. No doubt we’ll hear from Parakhin if that’s the case, if quick previous updates are anything to go by.
It’s clear that Microsoft is accelerating the chatbot’s rollout, and more users are no doubt being recruited to chat with the AI via the latest Windows 11 update, which puts the ChatGPT-powered Bing right on the taskbar. (Well, more or less – there has been some controversy over the implementation, as we discuss in detail here).
The fact that this extra burden on the shoulders of the AI has caused problems should come as no surprise, given that the chatbot is still in its infancy.
There will likely be growing pains when it comes to the three new personalities just introduced for Bing. This allows users to change the tone of responses from the AI to be more chatty and creative, or more precise and dry (or there’s a middle ground of a balance somewhere in between).