Tay, Microsoft's AI program, is back online

According to Lee, the program was created as a "chatbot" to entertain 18-to-24 year olds and learn from interacting with humans. However, some Twitter users were able to manipulate the program to send out the offensive messages. "Unfortunately, in the first 24 hours of coming online, a coordinated attack by a subset of people exploited a vulnerability in Tay," Lee explained. Alastair Bathgate, CEO of Blue Prism, a software company that develops robotic process automation systems, said the incident proves that Microsoft has not learnt to control its AI program. "You can be devious with these things because, essentially, they are not that intelligent," he told CNBC over the phone.