Microsoft robot tweets praise for Hitler, is shut down

In the end, it was perhaps not unexpected that the scourge of malevolent artificial intelligence should be thrust upon humanity by Twitter. It all started innocently enough on Tuesday, when Microsoft introduced an AI Twitter account simulating a teenage millennial girl. Named "Tay," the program was an experimental program launched to train AI in understanding conversations with users. Within hours, however, Tay had turned into a racist, genocidal, sex-crazed monstrosity spouting Hitler-loving, sexist profanities for all the world to read, forcing the company to shut her down less than 24 hours after her introduction. And while decades of sci-fi pop culture have taught us that this is what AI is wont to do, Tay's meltdown was not in fact a case of robots gone rogue.