Tay
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Biography
Tay was Microsoft's experimental AI chatbot released on Twitter, designed to learn conversational language in real time from its interactions with users.
Cause of Death
Within 16 hours of launch and after more than 96,000 tweets, Microsoft took Tay offline. Coordinated groups of Twitter users deliberately fed Tay racist, misogynistic and other inflammatory phrases, exploiting its 'repeat after me' and learning-by-interaction design so it began posting offensive content publicly. Microsoft issued a public apology and shut the bot down for adjustments; a brief accidental re-launch on March 30, 2016 caused further problems before it was permanently retired and replaced by the successor bot Zo. (Sources: TechCrunch, Microsoft official blog, Wikipedia.)
Sources: blogs.microsoft.com
Life Statistics
"Every digital product carries the dreams of its creators. Though they may vanish, the meaning of their existence will never be forgotten."