Unless you’re rooting for social media bots to become Nazis, Microsoft’s Tay was a resounding failure. When she was released “into the wild” on Twitter, she learned quickly based on her input data: interactions with users on the platform. As those users inundated Tay with misogyny, xenophobia, and racism, Tay started to spout out hateful messages. It’s been a couple years since Tay’s troubles, and Microsoft even tried another bot, Zo, which has likewise had a few problems. Bots are still in the news for their problems; in fact, bots and bad behavior now are almost synonymous, especially in light…
Author: Heidi McKee
Jeremy David Johnson
Heidi A. McKee is the Roger and Joyce Howe Professor of Written Communication and an associate professor of English at Miami University. With James Porter, she co-wrote Professional Communication and Network Interaction: A Rhetorical, Ethical Approach (2017) and The Ethics of Internet Research: A Rhetorical, Case-Based Process (2009).