Alex Kantrowitz on the public scandal of Microsoft’s artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, Tay.
Tay was outfitted with some filters for vulgarity and the like. What the bot was not outfitted with were safeguards against those dark forces on the internet that would inevitably do their damnedest to corrupt her. That proved a critical oversight.
With incessant prompting from chat conversations, Tay learned and became a neo-Nazi chatbot that spewed forth incredibly vitriolic hate speech.
Tay’s degeneration quickly snowballed once it became clear she could be taught to say pretty much anything; others took notice and joined in.
Incredible, but I see a similar method used by Faux News which has pushed an agenda of attitudes and perspectives upon an unsuspecting public for years. The result is an out of control behemoth running for president. With artificial intelligence.