Microsoft launches AI chatbot on Twitter, and it turns racist within hours

Microsoft introduced a chat robot designed to interact in the style of a "teen girl" on Twitter, and it went rogue almost immediately, spouting racist opinions, conspiracy theories and a fondness for genocide. The artificial intelligence (AI) robot named "Tay" -- @Tayandyou on Twitter -- was intended to chat with 18-to-24-year-olds, with the idea that she would learn from each tweet and get progressively smarter. Clearly, Microsoft had forgotten that Twitter is home to a huge amount of trolls, racists and general troublemakers, who jumped at the chance to "teach" the teenage "chatbot" about life. The AI chatbot Tay is a machine learning project, designed for human engagement. As it learns, some of its responses are inappropriate and indicative of the types of interactions some people are having with it.