Technologies

Microsoft Tests New Bing AI Personalities as It Allows Longer Chats

Microsoft had restricted exchanges earlier after a series of news articles and social media posts about strange responses in long conversations.

Microsoft said it’s expanding the lengths of chats people can have with the test version of its Bing AI, while the company’s also begun testing different «tone» personalities for more precise or more creative responses. The company’s moves follow efforts to restrict access to the technology after media coverage of the artificial intelligence chatting app going off the rails went viral last week.

Bing Chat can now respond to up to six questions or statements in a row per conversation, after which people will need to start a new topic, the company said in a blog post Tuesday. Microsoft had previously imposed a conversation limit of five responses, with a maximum of 50 total interactions per day. Microsoft said it will now allow 60 total interactions per day and plans to increase that total to 100 «soon.»

Microsoft also said it’s testing options for people to choose the tone of their conversations, whether they prefer Bing to be more precise in its responses, more creative or somewhere between the two.

Ultimately, the tech giant said it hopes to allow longer and more intricate conversations over time but wants to do so «responsibly.»

«The very reason we are testing the new Bing in the open with a limitedset of preview testers is precisely to find these atypical use casesfrom which we can learn and improve the product,» the company said in a statement.

Microsoft’s moves mark the latest twist for its Bing AI chatbot, which made a splash when it was announced earlier this month. The technology combines Microsoft’s less-popular Bing search engine with technology from startup OpenAI, whose ChatGPT responds to prompts for everything from being asked to write a poem to helping write code and even everyday math to figure out how many bags can fit in a car.

Experts believe this new type of technology, called «generative AI,» has the potential to remake the way we interact with technology. Microsoft, for example, demonstrated how its Bing AI could help someone plan a vacation day by day with relative ease.

Last week, though, critics raised concerns that Microsoft’s Bing AI may not be ready for prime time. People with early access began posting bizarre responses the system was giving them, including Bing telling a New York Times columnist to abandon his marriage, and the AI demanding an apology from a Reddit user over whether we’re in 2022 or 2023.

Microsoft said that the «long and intricate» chat sessions that prompted many of the unusual responses were «not something we would typically find with internal testing.» But it hopes that improvements to the program, including its potential new choice of tone for responses, will help give people «more control on the type of chat behavior to best meet» their needs.

More on AI chatbots

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for March 30 #757

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 30, No. 757.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is tough, but in the end, it’s a fun one. And the spangram makes a fun themed shape! Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: For a rainy day

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Singin’ in the rain.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

CANT, CALL, ROUT, RILE, SIRE, LIRE, BAIL, MAIL, TALL, MALL, HALL, BAND, PANE, TAPAS

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

RIBS, VENT, PANEL, SHAFT, BUTTON, CANOPY, HANDLE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is UMBRELLATERM. To find it, start with the U that is three letters to the right on the bottom row, and wind up, forming … kind of an umbrella shape?

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for March 30, #1023

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 30 #1023

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle features one of those infamous purple-category topics, where you have to play around with adding letters to words. It’s fun, but challenging. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Not real.

Green group hint: Fool with.

Blue group hint: Enterprise is another one.

Purple group hint: Snack foods, but with a twist.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Imitation.

Green group: Play around (with).

Blue group: Car rental companies.

Purple group: Snack brands plus starting letter.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is imitation. The four answers are dummy, ersatz, faux and mock.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is play around (with). The four answers are futz, mess, tinker and toy.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is car rental companies. The four answers are Avis, Budget, Dollar and Hertz.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is snack brands plus starting letter. The four answers are Fritz (ritz), plays (Lays), truffles (Ruffles) and Utz (yutz).

Technologies

Our Favorite Gaming Keyboard Is Down to Its Lowest Price Ever This Amazon Spring Sale

This Amazon Spring Sale deal slashes a whopping 36% off our favorite gaming keyboard.

If you’re in the market for a gaming keyboard, I know it can get pretty daunting. Between the sheer number of options and varying price points, picking one out is far from easy, especially if you’re looking for a budget-minded option. However, right now, SteelSeries’ popular Apex 3 TKL model is discounted to just $32 as part of the Amazon Spring Sale, a solid 36% drop from its usual $50 price, which makes it one of the most accessible upgrades you can make.

The SteelSeries Apex 3 TKL is easy to recommend, considering how well it balances the basics. It’s a tenkeyless design, which means you’re losing the number pad but gaining more desk space. That can make a big difference if you’re running a compact desk setup.

The typing experience leans towards quiet and comfortable thanks to the whisper quiet switches used here. That makes the keyboard accessible for everyday work as well as gaming. It also bring in features you wouldn’t really expect at this budget price point. You get customizable RGB lighting, dedicated media controls and even IP32 water resistance to protect the keyboard against accidental beverage spills.

The keyboard is our pick for the best gaming keyboard for 2026, which reflects how it performs in real-world use. If you want a full-size layout, the standard Apex 3 is also on sale though the discount runs a bit slimmer. The regular Apex 3 with a full-size number pad can be had for $50, down from its usual $55 price.

CHEAP GAMING LAPTOP DEALS OF THE WEEK

Alienware 16 Aurora AC16250 Intel 7 RTX 5060 512GB SSD 16GB RAM 16-inch 120Hz Laptop:

$1,000 (save $350)
Lenovo LOQ Intel i5 13th Gen RTX 5050 1TB SSD 16GB RAM 15.6-inch Laptop:

$750 (save $295)
HP Omen Slim Intel Ultra 5 RTX 5050 512GB SSD 16GB RAM 16-inch Laptop:

$800 (save $650)
Alienware 16 Aurora AC16250 Intel 7 RTX 5050 512GB SSD 16GB RAM 16-inch 120Hz Laptop:

$850 (save $350)
Acer Nitro V Intel i5 13th Gen RTX 4050 512GB SSD 8GB RAM 15.6-inch Laptop:

$709 (save $41)

Deals are selected by the CNET Group commerce team, and may be unrelated to this article.

Why this deal matters

Priced at $32, the SteelSeries Apex 3 TKL delivers an excellent balance of performance, useful features and a compact design at a price that’s hard to argue with. That $18 discount makes it one of the easiest gaming peripheral upgrades to recommend.