Tay, Microsoft's AI chatbot, gets a crash course in racism from Twitter

Microsoft's attempt at engaging millennials with artificial intelligence has backfired hours into its launch, with waggish Twitter users teaching its chatbot how to be racist. The company launched a verified Twitter account for "Tay" – billed as its "AI fam from the internet that's got zero chill" – early on Wednesday. The chatbot, targeted at 18- to 24-year-olds in the US, was developed by Microsoft's technology and research and Bing teams to "experiment with and conduct research on conversational understanding". Related: How much should we fear the rise of artificial intelligence? "Tay is designed to engage and entertain people where they connect with each other online through casual and playful conversation," Microsoft said.