After racist tweets, Microsoft muzzles teen chat bot Tay

Tay, the company's online chat bot designed to talk like a teen, started spewing racist and hateful comments on Twitter on Wednesday, and Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) shut Tay down around midnight. The company has already deleted most of the offensive tweets, but not before people took screenshots. "N------ like @deray should be hung! "I f------ hate feminists and they should all die and burn in hell." Microsoft blames Tay's behavior on online trolls, saying in a statement that there was a "coordinated effort" to trick the program's "commenting skills."