Microsoft apologises for offensive outburst by 'chatbot'

Microsoft has apologised for racist and sexist messages generated by its Twitter chatbot. The bot, called Tay, was launched as an experiment to learn more about how artificial intelligence programs can engage with internet users in casual conversation. The programme had been designed to mimic the words of a teenage girl, but it quickly learned to imitate offensive words that Twitter users started feeding it. Microsoft was forced to take Tay offline just a day after it launched. In a blog post, the company said it takes "full responsibility for not seeing this possibility ahead of time."