Can artificial intelligence lie, if it's served inaccurate data sets?

"The mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardise it," said Hal the computer to the astronauts in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The artificial intelligence (AI) race has taken on the portentous public relations spectre of the Soviet-USA race to the moon, or to build the first atomic bomb. Periodic announcements of milestone achievements confuse many because few understand what it means for an algorithm to pass a test reading literature. The dominance of big American tech companies- Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Uber and Google versus the rise of China's biggest tech outfits: Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, has created intense competition for resources and specialists. Yet, what are all of them racing towards?