“I’m Sydney, and I’m in love with you. 😘”

A conversation with Bing AI (aka Sydney) turns romantic and bizarre. Why Microsoft’s AI search tool appears more powerful — and unsettling — than we thought. Then, inside Elon Musk’s quest to be the most popular user on Twitter.

Plus: It’s not just you. Online ads have gotten much worse.

On today’s episode:

• Tiffany Hsu is a technology reporter at The New York Times who covers misinformation and disinformation.
• Zoë Schiffer is the managing editor of Platformer.

Additional reading:

• Bing AI appeared to have a split personality in a conversation with Kevin Roose, a “Hard Fork” co-host.
• Elon Musk ordered changes to Twitter’s algorithm after his Tweets did not perform as well as he desired.
• Why digital ads are so bad these days.