Microsoft 'deeply sorry' for Tay chatbot, will bring it back when 'vulnerability' is fixed

A Microsoft executive said Friday that the company was "deeply sorry" for the "unintended offensive and hurtful" tweets the company's Tay chatbot delivered earlier this week. "Tay is now offline and we'll look to bring Tay back only when we are confident we can better anticipate malicious intent that conflicts with our principles and values," Peter Lee, the corporate vice president in charge of Microsoft Research, wrote in a blog post. While that echoes the message that Microsoft delivered earlier, Lee attempted to show how Tay wasn't simply unleashed onto the Internet without preparation. Tay was the outgrowth of a similar Microsoft chatbot known as XiaoIce, which is already "delighting" 40 million people in China, Lee explained. "The great experience with XiaoIce led us to wonder: Would an AI like this be just as captivating in a radically different cultural environment?" Lee wrote.