Microsoft's Lovable Teen Chatbot Turned Racist Troll Proves How Badly Silicon Valley Needs Diversity

In less than 24 hours, Microsoft's artificial intelligence project modeled after an American teenage girl went from making awkward conversation in broken syntax to spewing hateful, fully formed tweets laden with racial slurs. But as startling as the offensive tweets were, the incident shows how quickly online conversations turn fetid when diversity isn't a factor. Tay, programmed as a 19 year old, was created as a machine learning project meant interact with peers between 18 and 24 years old. Users can play games with her, trade pictures, tell stories, and ping her for late-night chats. That last activity went awry Thursday when the chatbot began regurgitating inappropriate messages that skewed anti-semitic, used the n-word, and condemned feminism.