Microsoft’s Bing Chatbot Adds Conversation Style Selector

Microsoft has rolled out a new conversation style selector on its new Bing chatbot (via The Verge). The chat mode currently uses the “balanced” mode by default, but users can also choose the “creative” and “precise” modes.

The default “balanced” mode offers responses that are “reasonable and coherent, balancing accuracy and creativity in conversation. The “creative” mode offers responses that are original and imaginative, while the precise mode prioritizes accuracy and relevancy. Picking up one of these conversation styles will also change the color palette of the chatbot.

“I definitely prefer Creative, but Precise is also interesting – it’s much more factual, tweeted Microsoft’s head of web services Mikhail Parakhin, who invited users to see which one you like.”

Now almost everyone – 90% – should be seeing the Bing Chat Mode selector (the tri-toggle). I definitely prefer Creative, but Precise is also interesting – it's much more factual. See which one you like. The 10% who are still in the control group should start seeing it today.

— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) March 1, 2023

Since Microsoft launched its Bing AI last month, the company has tweaked it a couple of times. After acknowledging that the chatbot could go off the rails after users ask it 15 or more questions, the company restricted chat length before relaxing these limitations last week. According to Parakhin, a recent update to the chatbot should reduce cases where Bing refuses to reply or starts to “hallucinate”.

On Tuesday, Microsoft released a big update for Windows 11 with several taskbar changes, including a new search box that integrates the company’s Bing AI. However, the integration of the Bing chatbot in the search box is currently half- baked as it just redirects users to Microsoft Edge.