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Chinese Chatbots Apparently Re-educated After Political Faux Pas (reuters.com)

Posted by msmash on from the stranger-things dept.

A pair of 'chatbots' in China have been taken offline after appearing to stray off-script. In response to users' questions, one said its dream was to travel to the United States, while the other said it wasn't a huge fan of the Chinese Communist Party. From a report: The two chatbots, BabyQ and XiaoBing, are designed to use machine learning artificial intelligence (AI) to carry out conversations with humans online. Both had been installed onto Tencent Holdings Ltd's popular messaging service QQ. The indiscretions are similar to ones suffered by Facebook and Twitter, where chatbots used expletives and even created their own language. But they also highlight the pitfalls for nascent AI in China, where censors control online content seen as politically incorrect or harmful. Tencent confirmed it had taken the two robots offline from its QQ messaging service, but declined to elaborate on reasons.

3 of 80 comments (clear)

  1. Interesting question by istartedi · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They'll no doubt try to solve this problem by having an AI that is otherwise free; but constrained by a hard-coded ideology. In what ways will the AI wrap itself around "facts" that conflict with what it deduces? Will it be the AI analog of a human that knows it's killing itself; but can't stop using drugs?

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    1. Re:Interesting question by minstrelmike · · Score: 1, Interesting

      What China did isn't too different than what some American companies did (I forget exactly who). There was a chat bot that listened to the stuff on the internet and quickly turned into a misogynistic foul-mouthed racist. They shut it down after 24 hours because of course we all know that's not what most Americans are like, and certainly not on chat sites on the internet, and especially not right here on Slashdot.

  2. And this is why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    China is ultimately never going to amount to anything in the quest for artificial intelligence. Their bots will not be allowed to make mistakes and learn. They will continually be shut down, restarted, and hobbled in pursuit of ultimate state power. Therefore, the bots will be significantly stupider.