Microsoft Confirms Its Chinese-Language Chatbot Filters Certain Topics

fortune ^ | November 28, 2016, 5:04 AM EST | Kevin Lui

[BenLurkin]

Microsoft’s MSFT 0.13% Chinese-language AI chat bot filters certain topics, the company confirmed Monday, although it did not clarify whether that included interactions deemed politically sensitive.

Last week, CNNMoney and China Digital Times reported that Xiaoice would not directly respond to questions surrounding topics deemed sensitive by the Chinese state. References to the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 or “Steamed Bun Xi,” a nickname of Chinese President Xi Jinping, would draw evasive answers or non sequiturs from the chat bot, according to the report.

“Am I stupid? Once I answer you’d take a screengrab,” read one answer to a question that contained the words “topple the Communist Party.”

Even the mention of Donald Trump, the American President-elect, drew an evasive response from the chat bot, according to reports. “I don’t want to talk about it,” Xiaoice said, reports CNN Money.

[Stayfree]

Welcome to world-wide censorship because of the US handing over control of the internet to other countries...

[EagleUSA]

Yeah, offending commies with the truth is bad for business.

[Boogieman]

I hate to break it to you, but companies that want to business in China have been catering to the whims of the Communist party for a loooooong time before we handed over the domain name regulations to an international body.