Microsoft’s AI Model Upgrade: A Holiday Hiccup
As the holiday season approached, Microsoft announced an exciting upgrade to the AI model powering Bing Image Creator, promising a faster and more refined experience. This new model, based on OpenAI’s latest DALL-E 3 version, codenamed “PR16,” was touted to deliver images at twice the speed and quality. However, users quickly found this promise unmet, voicing their frustrations across platforms like X and Reddit.
- User feedback highlighted dissatisfaction with image quality.
- Many users reported a shift to other AI tools like ChatGPT.
“The DALL-E we used to love is gone forever,” lamented one Reddit user.
{Source: Reddit}
In response to the backlash, Microsoft decided to revert to the previous version of the AI model, DALL-E 3 PR13. Jordi Ribas, Microsoft’s head of search, communicated this decision on X, acknowledging some reproducible issues with PR16. “The deployment process is very slow unfortunately,” he added, with the transition expected to take several weeks.
Comparing model outputs can be tricky without standardized prompts. However, many users noted that images created by PR16 appeared less realistic and somewhat “lifeless.” Mayank Parmar from Windows Latest observed that these images lacked detail and polish, rendering them oddly cartoonish.
This isn’t an isolated incident. Earlier in February, Google faced similar challenges with its AI chatbot Gemini, pausing its ability to create images of people after receiving complaints about historical inaccuracies. These instances underscore the complexities involved in aligning internal model improvements with public expectations. Despite Microsoft’s internal benchmarks showing PR16 as slightly superior on average, it appears this metric didn’t resonate with user experiences.
