--- title: "Microsoft Will Pay You $15,000 If You Get Bing AI to Go Off the Rails" description: "Microsoft is offering a \"bug bounty\" to anyone who can bait its Bing AI into saying or doing what it's not supposed to." date: "2023-10-14" modified: "2023-10-14" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/microsoft-bing-ai-bug-bounty" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "bing" - "bug bounty" - "microsoft" - "the digest" --- # Microsoft Will Pay You $15,000 If You Get Bing AI to Go Off the Rails ![Microsoft is offering a "bug bounty" to anyone who can bait its Bing AI into saying or doing what it's not supposed to.]() *NEW YORK, UNITED STATES: Microsoft CEO Bill Gates (C) presents a T-shirt as a retirement gift to "Clippy" (R), a person dressed as the Microsoft Office Assistant, as Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos (L) looks on at the Office XP launch, 31 May, 2001, in New York. The Office Assistant is no longer a regular feature in the new suite of programs offered in Office XP. AFP PHOTO/Stan HONDA (Photo credit should read STAN HONDA/AFP via Getty Images) \Image: STAN HONDA/Getty Images\* ## Bing Ring Think you can outsmart an AI into saying stuff it's not supposed to? Microsoft is betting big that you can't — and willing to pay up if it's wrong. In a blog update, [Microsoft announced a new "bug bounty" program](), vowing to reward security researchers between $2,000 and $15,000 if they're [able to find "vulnerabilities"]() in its Bing AI products, including "jailbreak" prompts that make it produce responses that [go against the guardrails]() that are supposed to bar it from being bigoted or [otherwise problematic](). To be eligible for submission, Bing users must inform Microsoft of a previously unknown vulnerability that is, [per criteria outlined by the company](), either "important" or "critical" to security. They must also be able to reproduce the vulnerability via video or in writing. The bounty amounts are based on severity and quality levels, meaning the best documentation of the most critical bugs would be rewarded the most money. To entrepreneurial AI fans, the time is now! ## ChatBPD This program notably follows Microsoft's seeming difficulties handling [Bing's, er, quirks](). After the invite-only launch of the AI in early February, Bing AI right away began going off the rails and doing crazy stuff like [concocting a hit list](), claiming it was [spying on users through their webcams](), and [threatening humans]() who [made it mad](). Microsoft [finally "lobotomized" Bing]() towards the end of its disastrous first month of media beta testing and less than a month later [unleashed the newly-defanged AI]() into the world for anyone to use. Since that bowdlerizing, Bing has mostly flown under the radar as ChatGPT, released by [Microsoft partner Open AI](), has soared — with a few exceptions, like a crafty user who was able to bait the chatbot into giving fraud advice by [eliciting sympathy over a dead grandma](). We don't know why, exactly Microsoft is only now announcing its Bing bug bounty, and when we reached out to the company to ask if the grandma jailbreak (or anything else) served as an impetus, we were pointed to another [blog post about the company's bug bounty initiatives](). Regardless of timing, it is fascinating that Microsoft is outsourcing its vulnerability research — though given that it [makes deals]() that range in the [tens of billions](), $15,000 is chump change by comparison. **More on Microsoft:** [*The IRS Says Microsoft Owes More in Back Taxes Than It Invested in OpenAI*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()