Chinese Chatbots Must Pledge Loyalty to the Communist Party or Face ‘Adjusting’

Meanwhile, over in China…

Tencent QQ, a popular messaging app in China, nixed chatbots from their app after they were deemed to be unpatriotic.

What they said: One bot, BabyQ, responded “No,” when asked “Do you love the Communist Party?”

Another one, Xiaobing, said: “My China dream is to go to America.”

Yet another chatbot responded with “I’m having my period, wanna take a rest,” when asked about patriotism.

Are chatbots rebelling?: These responses may have been learned, unlike the recent Facebook A.I. situation (where chatbots created their own language). When Microsoft’s Tay chatbot went viral last year, the company said “some of its responses are inappropriate and indicative of the types of interactions some people are having with it.”

Chatbot no more: Tencent says “We are now adjusting the services which will be resumed after improvements.” In other words, they’ve been sent to chabot reeducation camp.

[Inage: Flickr/Michael Coghlan]