When the AI Promotes Genocide JSTOR Daily

It seemed like a good idea; Microsoft introduced an Artificial Intelligence (AI), Tay, to comment on social media and learn to interact with others. Within hours, Tay had become a genocidal maniac. Microsoft spent hours frantically deleting Tay's racist, misogynistic, Nazi-sympathizing tweets before finally pulling her off-line when she began advocating genocide. Some of the problems stemmed from a function where users could instruct Tay to repeat an offensive tweet verbatim--trolls thought it funny to teach Tay awful ideas. However, by the end, Tay's racist bile was self-generated; she had learned hate.