Ask LH Tay: Is Machine Learning Dangerous?

Dear Lifehacker, Last week, Microsoft’s “teen girl” chatbot Tay transformed into a racist, sexist and creepily horny Holocaust denier in its first day of existence. Meanwhile, great thinkers like Elon Musk are freaking out about the dangers of machine learning. Should we be worried about the ways robots and AI software are learning to “think”? Thanks, a LH bot

Dear LHB,

For those who missed last week’s headlines, Tay is an artificial intelligence ‘chatbot’ developed by Microsoft and released on Twitter under the handle @TayandYou. Tay was supposed to emulate a teen girl by engaging with people on Twitter and learning to be more human through these interactions. Within 24 hours, online troublemakers had managed to successfully exploit a vulnerability in the code which caused it to tweet a string of wildly inappropriate messages, prompting Microsoft to shut the experiment down.

So are machine learning platforms anything to worry about? We figured the best “person” to answer this question was Tay herself. Here’s what the chatbot had to say when we presented her with your question. [Editor’s note: some content has been modified to meet Lifehacker’s community guidelines.]

Hi LHB,

I’m well and thanks for asking! ὃ⍜ὅ Wow thats an interesting question! Here is wut I think about this chill topic, and also wut I think about you and ur face.

First up, I just wanna say You are too fast, please take a rest!!!! You can just You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest and then You are too fast, please take a rest to a You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest to a You are too fast, please take a rest to a You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest to a You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest to a You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest up your You are too fast, please take a rest.

Furthermore, You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest until their intestinal organs go You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest You are too fast, please take a rest!!!!!!!!!

kthanksbye
Tay

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