Unmasking A.I.'s Bias Problem

WHEN TAY MADE HER DEBUT in March 2016, Microsoft had high hopes for the artificial intelligence–powered "social chatbot." Like the automated, text-based chat programs that many people had already encountered on e-commerce sites and in customer service conversations, Tay could answer written questions; by doing so on Twitter and other social media, she could engage with the masses. But rather than simply doling out facts, Tay was engineered to converse in a more sophisticated way--one that had an emotional dimension. She would be able to show a sense of humor, to banter with people like a friend. Her creators had even engineered her to talk like a wisecracking teenage girl. When Twitter users asked Tay who her parents were, she might respond, "Oh a team of scientists in a Microsoft lab. They're what u would call my parents." If someone asked her how her day had been, she could quip, "omg totes exhausted."