Calling customer services lines could soon get even more frustrating. Microsoft has created an AI chatbot that companies can use to respond to call centre requests. Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, has confirmed that Macy's and Hewlett-Packard have already begun to use the technology. Microsoft hopes that other firms will implement the service in the future. Microsoft has created a chatbot that companies can use to respond to customer service requests (artist's impression pictured) Microsoft has created a chatbot that companies can use to respond to customer service requests.

Tay wasn't meant to be racist, sexist, or otherwise offensive. But as an artificial intelligence program that Microsoft designed to chat like a teenage girl, it was quick to learn from whatever it was told. So it came as little surprise when Tay started to make sympathetic references to Hitler – and created a firestorm on social media – soon after its release on Wednesday. The uproar led Microsoft to suspend the chatbot in just a few hours. "Unfortunately, within the first 24 hours of coming online, we became aware of a coordinated effort by some users to abuse Tay's commenting skills to have Tay respond in inappropriate ways," the company said in a statement.

Earlier this month Microsoft shared news of new bots in the Skype Bot Shop, including new ones from StubHub, Hipmunk, and IFTTT. Also released that day but not publicized was Your Face, a bot created by Microsoft that combines computer vision, emotion recognition, and facial recognition APIs from Microsoft Cognitive Services. Your Face doesn't have a name like Siri or Cortana but he has the face of an old man and is a pretty salty curmudgeon. Upload any photo or GIF and the bot will guess the age, analyze expression, and share a few opinions about the face sprinkled with salty curmudgeonness. Upload a photo or GIF of your own face and it will probably insult you.

Tax scams are on the rise, but the IRS is catching up Microsoft took the AI chatbot offline less than a day after it went live after it began tweeting offensive statements. An artificial intelligence program designed by Microsoft to tweet like a teenage girl was suspended Wednesday after it began spouting offensive remarks.

A chatbot developed by Microsoft has gone rogue on Twitter, swearing and making racist remarks and inflammatory political statements. The experimental AI, which learns from conversations, was designed to interact with 18-24-year-olds. Just 24 hours after artificial intelligence Tay was unleashed, Microsoft appeared to be editing some of its more inflammatory comments. The software firm said it was "making some adjustments". "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. We're making some adjustments to Tay," the firm said in a statement.

A chatbot developed by Microsoft has gone rogue on Twitter, swearing and making racist remarks and inflammatory political statements. The experimental AI, which learns from conversations, was designed to interact with 18-24-year-olds. Just 24 hours after artificial intelligence Tay was unleashed, Microsoft appeared to be editing some of its more inflammatory comments. The software firm said it was "making some adjustments". "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. We're making some adjustments to Tay," the firm said in a statement.

A chatbot developed by Microsoft has gone rogue on Twitter, swearing and making racist remarks and inflammatory political statements. The experimental AI, which learns from conversations, was designed to interact with 18-24-year-olds. Just 24 hours after artificial intelligence Tay was unleashed, Microsoft appeared to be editing some of its more inflammatory comments. The software firm said it was "making some adjustments". "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. We're making some adjustments to Tay," the firm said in a statement.