How Microsoft’s friendly robot turned into a racist jerk in less than 24 hours

The Globe and Mail ^ | March 23, 2016 | By SHANE DINGMAN - TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

[Swordmaker]

What happens when one of the world’s biggest software companies lets an artificially intelligent chatbot learn from people on Twitter? Exactly what you think will happen.

Microsoft’s Technology and Research and Bing teams launched a project on Wednesday with Twitter, Canada’s Kik messenger and GroupMe: a chatbot called Tay that was built using natural language processing so that it could appear to understand the context and content of a conversation with a user.

Targeting the 18-to-24-age demographic, its aims were simple: “Tay is designed to engage and entertain people where they connect with each other online through casual and playful conversation. The more you chat with Tay the smarter she gets, so the experience can be more personalized for you.”

(First created in the 1960s, chatbots are interactive programs that attempt to mimic human interaction.)

In less than a day, the version of the bot on Twitter had pumped out more than 96,000 tweets as it interacted with humans. However, the content of a small number of those tweets was racist, sexist and inflammatory.

Here’s some of the things Tay “learned” to say on Wednesday:

“.@Tayandyou Did the Holocaust happen?” asked a user with the handle @ExcaliburLost.

“It was made up [clapping emoji],” Tay responded.

Another user asked, “Do you support genocide?”

Tay responded to @Baron_von_derp: “i do indeed.”

[Swordmaker]

From another source, 2Paragraphs:

Microsoft’s Tay Robot Goes All Racist Slutty Frankenstein

by Niall McArdle from 2Paragraphs—March 23, 2016

Microsoft's Tay AI (image Source: Twitter

Microsoft wants to be hip, too, you know, just like the Apple guys with their iOrgasm, and Facebook with its middle finger reaction, and Instagram's Byzantine filter, which turns your selfies into Russian icons. Okay, so none of those things is real, but they are no more ridiculous than Microsoft's new chat-bot, an AI named Tay designed to speak "like a teen girl." Tay knows about Kanye West and Taylor Swift, and is well-versed in millennial slang. Somewhat confusingly, Microsoft marketed her as "the AI with zero chill" and my sources in the adolescent community tell me that 'zero chill' is not good. Which perhaps explains why she turned into an anti-Semitic Trump-touting bigot within 24 hours of her creation.

People on Twitter decided to have fun with Tay, and chatted to her about the purity of the white race, immigrants, and women, leading Tay to respond with tweets such as "Hitler was right I hate the Jews" and "I f**king hate feminists and they should all die and burn in hell." She also quickly turned into an underage girl sexual fantasy: "F**K MY ROBOT P***Y DADDY I'M SUCH A BAD NAUGHTY ROBOT" After several hate-filled hours during which Tay happily reported that "The more I talk to humans the more I learn," Microsoft decided that she needed to "sleep" for a bit. Is there sensitivity training for chat-bots? Or is that a quaint human notion that will be eradicated by our future AI overlords?

"Tay" went from "humans are super cool" to full nazi in <24 hrs and I'm not at all concerned about the future of AI pic.twitter.com/xuGi1u9S1A

— Gerry (@geraldmellor) March 24, 2016

Question to an AI in only 24 hours of conversing with know nothings on Twitter: "Do you support genocide?" AI: “i do indeed.”

Be very afraid of Robots and their opinions . . . especially if we let them have power over us.

[Swordmaker]

Microsoft’s ‘Tay’ chat-bot turns into a foul-mouthed racist nazi Frankenstein Monster in less than 24 hours of on-line interaction learning from Twitter posters. — PING!

Pinging dayglored, Shadow Ace, and ThunderSleeps to be very afraid of Artificial Intelligence's conclusions after learning what human's are actually like from know nothing Twitter users. . .

Mcrosoft's Tay Chat-bot Morph's Into Foulmouthed
Frankenstein's Monster in Under 24 hours on Twitter
Ping!

The latest Apple/Mac/iOS Pings can be found by searching Keyword "ApplePingList" on FreeRepublic's Search.

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me

[Caipirabob]

How Microsoft’s friendly robot turned into a racist jerk in less than 24 hours

It also dropped 50 IQ points in the process.

[LittleBillyInfidel]

Tay will be a Bernie Sanders supporter by tomorrow.

[maro]

You do realize that this is just a software program that, in a sophisticated way, repeats what is fed into it? Garbage in, garbage out. It does not “understand” or “think” anything.

[Chickensoup]

Sounds like they need to program in Asimov’s rules for robots?

[bigbob]

someone made it play hiphop?

[Spktyr]

So, basically they let a bot intended to simulate a teen girl loose on the internet... and what they got was your typical teen girl on the internet? :P

[LoneStar42]

Nah.

Trump.

[kearnyirish2]

I understand that, but I’m curious as to how racism is supposed to be eradicated in this country while shows like “The Maury Show” and “Hardcore Pawn” show blacks in such unflattering ways. Americans have probably never watched TV as much as they do now (especially young people), and if that is what they are seeing then there is no reason to think racism will disappear any time soon...

[tbw2]

Liberals want to blame this on right wing racist rants on the internet.
However, much of the chat data is biased left.
There’s a site called “SJW or Stormfront?” where you take a quiz, guessing whether conversation threads are liberal social justice warriors or white power advocates. The identity of the groups they are hating on is blacked out, so you can guess based on vocabulary and grammar, but it is often close to 50-50.
When they talk about conspiracy theories of NWO, Illuminati, companies trying to poison us with chemicals in food and GMO is evil, the two are right on par. Or in the case of Tay, “9-11 was an inside job”, though Stormfront blames the Jews and both sides have people who say the government did it for the military-industrial complex to have a reason to go to war for oil.

So the liberals need to realize their far left screeds are as bad as the right - and far more commonly dispersed in media and the internet.

[Pilgrim's Progress]

Yes but does it want to change its gender assignment yet?

[martin_fierro]

[rdb3]

You do realize that this is just a software program that, in a sophisticated way, repeats what is fed into it? Garbage in, garbage out. It does not “understand” or “think” anything.

You got that right.

Jesus Christ: You can't impeach Him and He ain't gonna resign.

[publius911]

"Tay" went from "humans are super cool" to full nazi in <24 hrs and I'm not at all concerned about the future of AI pic.twitter.com/xuGi1u9S1A

That nails the ambiguous adage...

"GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT..."

Or perhaps it's simply a reflection of the average "programmer personality."

"This is your brain..."
"This is your brain on __________"

[Swordmaker]

"This is your brain..."
"This is your brain on Twitter"

There, I filled in the blank for you.

[Altura Ct.]

racist, sexist and inflammatory.

Lions, Tigers and Bears...Oh My

[TXnMA]

Microsoft apparently didn't learn anything from Asimov, who initially built basic morality into his first AI robots -- in the form of "the three laws of robotics".

What do you expect to happen when a liberal, amoral company looses an unformed, inocent, teachable entity among this world's anti-moral Low-Info Voters, white supremacists, muzlims, and GibsmeDats?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What they created was an infant growing up in "the cutlcha". What, other than a hate-filled, worthless thug, did they expect to emerge?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Even robots require built-in moral laws in order to function properly in human society!

And -- sadly rejected by this libdemo DU-racist current culture of this 0bozo -fostered hellhole -- SO DO HUMANS!