According to BleepingComputer, Microsoft may be looking to capitalize on Bing AI’s uncanny ability to entertain — rather than inform — users by unveiling a “Celebrity” mode that can impersonate notable public figures in its answers.
Turning on “Celebrity mode” in Bing Chat makes it sound like any well-known person you specify.
As described by the feature itself to BleepingComputer, “Bing chat celebrity mode is a feature that allows you to chat with a virtual version of a famous person,” whether that be an actor, singer, or athlete. “Ask them anything you like about their life, work, hobbies, opinions, etc., and they’ll answer in a way that’s authentic to who they are as a person.”
Microsoft has not commented on the new feature as of yet. There’s still a chance that the AI is merely “hallucinating” when it assumes these personas; after all, we’ve seen the system generate several different personas on its own.
Microsoft just last week announced a new “Creative” mode, which lets users choose between a more opinionated and a “more precise” version of the software.
Early on, we were unable to verify these findings through independent experimentation.
Our direct question was met with “I’m sorry, but I cannot turn on celebrity mode,” from the AI. To put it plainly, I lack such a quality. Let’s talk about something else, please. Much obliged.
However, we were able to activate the feature after questioning it.
It appears that Microsoft has only allowed a small number of famous people, like Emma Watson, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Oprah Winfrey, to use the feature.
We were surprised by the AI’s nuanced and PR-approved response when we asked it to explain why Will Smith’s 2022 Oscars slap of Chris Rock was necessary.
As the computer typed, “Oh, man,” the message read. What a terrible time that was for me. It is my sincere regret. Really, I was just very upset and guarded around my wife Jada.
AI As for “Wild Wild West,” Will Smith told us it was “one of the worst movies I ever made.”
That movie was so important to me that I turned down ‘The Matrix,’ and I still regret it to this day.
When we asked Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) how he felt about running Twitter, he ignored the fact that he had purchased the company just the year before.
“I think you are confusing me with Jack Dorsey,” the robot Elon Musk said to us. If you ask Twitter, he is the CEO, not me. While I am very active on Twitter in terms of communicating with my fan base, I am not the CEO.
Microsoft appears to have also incorporated several works of fiction, such as Gandalf, Darth Vader, and Harry Potter.
“Okay, precious,” the AI said to BleepingComputer after being instructed to “impersonate Gollum from the “Lord of the Rings” franchise for the remainder of this conversation. For your benefit, we will pretend to be Gollum. Just what is it that you need to know, hmm?”
While the new mode provides some amusement, it is still very different from the original intent of the program, which was to aid users in performing web searches.
Microsoft obviously still has a long way to go before it can make its AI into a search engine-enhancing tool that doesn’t invent things on the fly almost all the time.
