Chatbots are genuinely impressive when you watch them do things they’re good at, like writing a basic email or creating weird futuristic-looking images. But ask generative AI to solve one of those puzzles in the back of a newspaper, and things can quickly go off the rails. That’s what researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder found when they challenged …
Read More »Tag Archives: chatbots
Older Americans turning to AI-powered chatbots for companionship
Jill Smola is a 75-year-old retiree who understands the power of human connection, having spent her working days as an aide taking care of the elderly. “We would play games, put puzzles together,” Smola told CBS News. She said human interaction was important, “so that they had somebody to talk to. That they just weren’t sitting in a chair doing …
Read More »Top Jobs AI Chatbots Could Help Automate: Microsoft Study
An AI chatbot is a pretty good interpreter. It can’t dredge a river. Microsoft researchers analyzed which careers are most and least likely to be affected by generative AI and large language models based on an anonymized dataset of 200,000 conversations between users in the United States and the tech giant’s Copilot chatbot, formerly known as Bing Copilot. They found …
Read More »Trump’s ‘woke’ AI executive order encourages tech to censor their chatbots
Tech companies looking to sell their artificial intelligence technology to the federal government must now contend with a new regulatory hurdle: proving their chatbots aren’t “woke.” President Donald Trump’s sweeping new plan to counter China in achieving “global dominance” in AI promises to cut regulations and cement American values into the AI tools increasingly used at work and home. But …
Read More »Why AI is moving from chatbots to the browser
Happy Friday. I’m back from vacation and still getting caught up on everything I missed. AI researchers moving jobs is getting covered like NBA trades now, apparently. Before I get into this week’s issue, I want to make sure you check out my interview with Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas on Decoder this week. It’s a good deep dive on the …
Read More »Study warns of ‘significant risks’ in using AI therapy chatbots
Therapy chatbots powered by large language models may stigmatize users with mental health conditions and otherwise respond inappropriately or even dangerously, according to researchers at Stanford University. While recent coverage in The New York Times and elsewhere has highlighted the role that ChatGPT may play in reinforcing delusional or conspiratorial thinking, a new paper titled “Expressing stigma and inappropriate responses …
Read More »