AI’s next smart move might be scrapping the chatbot

FOR three years, chatbots have been the face of generative artificial intelligence (AI). 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.

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 potentially building safer, more focused products, and raising questions about whether chatbots really are the future interface for AI or just a passing fad.