Microsoft limits Bing AI chats to five replies

Screenshot: Microsoft

Microsoft imposes limits to Bing AI chat days after the chatbot seemed to have gone off the rails for multiple users testing the software. Bing chats will now be capped at 50 questions per day and five per session, after the search engine was seen insulting users, emotionally manipulating, or lying to them.

The cap is at five turns based on the data Microsoft has gathered so far. “Our data has shown that the vast majority of people find the answers they’re looking for within 5 turns and that only around 1 percent of chat conversations have 50+ messages,” says the Bing team in a blog post. If you hit the five-per-session limit, you'll get a prompt to start a new topic.

Microsoft warned users earlier this week that longer chat sessions with 15 or more questions could make Bing "become repetitive or be prompted / provoked to give responses that are not necessarily helpful or in line with our designed tone.” The company is still working to improve the tone, but it isn't clear how long the limits will last. The Bing AI feature is currently in limited testing, but Microsoft has been working to improve it daily. The Verge noted technical issues being addressed, with larger weekly drops of fixes and improved search and answers coming out.