Arguing with AI: A dispute with Microsoft’s brilliant and boneheaded Bing search engine

• For GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop, who has been using the new Bing as part of his daily work this week, what started as a question about a previous story turned into a frustrating and revealing back and forth with a bot. Read more.

Microsoft’s layoffs are continuing, with another 617 people let go this week in the Seattle region as part of the 10,000 global cutbacks announced by the company in January. 

• The latest cuts bring the total number impacted in Microsoft’s home region to nearly 1,500 people. The layoffs are expected to be done by the end of March. 

• The Surface, HoloLens and Xbox units were among the business units hit hardest by the latest round, Bloomberg News reports. Read more. 

Techstars Seattle held its annual Demo Night event Thursday as 12 startups pitched after spending the past three months honing their business models inside the accelerator program. 

• GeekWire startups reporter Nate Bek covered the event and highlighted the pitches that stood out. Read his take. 

Save room for the tech! Amid the smorgasbord of Super Bowl beer and snack commercials, companies are pitching everything from smartphones to home internet.

• John Travolta (above) sings T-Mobile’s praises and the fix is in for Google’s Pixel photos. What’s missing? Crypto ads. See our roundup of what to expect between plays on Sunday.

A Seattle organization devoted to combating infectious diseases landed $9.9 million from the U.S. government to develop an RNA-based nasal flu vaccine.

• The Access to Advanced Health Institute is targeting two bird flu viruses that have pandemic potential. Read more.

Tech Moves:

• Elieum Therapeutics' CEO is departing amid layoffs; e-commerce company Rokt hired an Amazon vet to lead a new Seattle office; and more key personnel changes.

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend. — GeekWire managing editor Taylor Soper, taylor@geekwire.com, and GeekWire reporter Kurt Schlosser, kurt@geekwire.com.