AI's next move might be scrapping the chatbot

FOR THREE YEARS, chatbots have been the face of generative artificial intelligence. Type anything in them to get a personalised response, which morphs into a seemingly magical dialogue with a machine.While that conversational interface may seem the best way to harness large language models, some companies are starting to ditch chatbots, worried about liability and loss of control.

- PARMY OLSON

They’ve found that even with guardrails, users can “jailbreak” the technology and get a chatbot to go off topic, sometimes in harmful or unsavoury directions. They might be leaving magic on the table, but these firms are also building safer, focused products and raising questions about whether chatbots really are the future interface for AI.