Microsoft GitHubs BotBuilder framework behind Tay chatbot

So this is what @TayAndYou was supposed to be about: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has used his keynote at the Build conference to launch an open source chatbot framework. Instead of setting the buzz before the big reveal, Microsoft's shot at a public Twitter-bot was derailed when 4chan users worked out how to game “Tay”, …

[PleebSmasher]

passing the buck

Build your own racist bot! We're tired of the bad PR!

[mythicalduck]

Re: passing the buck

I think it's a great idea. I'm going to set one up as our IT helpdesk, and retire to the pub

[Admiral Grace Hopper]

Re: passing the buck

@mythicalduck - this is exactly the sort of the thinking that we need, out of the box and into the pub.

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

It's obviously a plot by North Korea to destroy all counties which are on a higher technological level than NK. In other words - the world. We are doomed. Mine's the one with the SAS Survival Handbook in the pocket.

[Ralph B]

Great!

Wonderful. We can have the bots talking to each other on the social networks, looking at the adverts that we meat-sacks have blocked.

Now all we just need is an alternative space where we humans can meet and socialise. Oh, hang on ...

[Kepler]

Re: Great!

Definitely a link worth clicking on! Kudos, Ralph B!

(Despite the title, I did not see any of Itchy or Scratchy, nor even of Marge. But I was treated to a brief but highly apposite snippet of The Simpsons, and a lovely bit of Beethoven's 6th!)

[astrax]

"I shall call him...

...Mini-Me!" - Trump

[Anonymous Coward]

What does any of this bring, what's it all for???

"at this point few developers have the expertise and tools needed to create new conversational experiences or enable existing applications and services with a conversational interface their users can enjoy"...

It just seems like a fake academic experiment that can backfire (as M$-Tay did) if not closely watched. Sure in a thousand years when we have real AI this stuff will be really interesting... But for now otherwise.... But hey I'm lost, maybe I'm missing something.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatterbot

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What does any of this bring, what's it all for???

I guess it's the next phase of Outsourcing? Certainly I'd get more sense out of a racist hitler loving chat bot than some of my third party help desks that may sound a little bit like Slip Row.

[Anonymous Coward]

Lots of Downvotes....

But no actual explanations... Damn you fellow Reg'ers!

[chivo243]

Not up to the

Turing test I would guess?

[Kepler]

Re: Not up to the

I'd say the bots that wrote Tay did a perfect job of passing for actual MS coders!

[Kepler]

Re: Not up to the

(And if all the platitudinous, buzzword-compliant jargon and rubbish that gets spouted from SatNad's mouth — pretentious fluff that sounds nice but means nothing — isn't actually composed by a bot, I'll eat my hat!

Most likely a bot designed to appeal to the undiscriminating ear — and hiney — of Steve Ballmer.)

[Nelbert Noggins]

And here I thought it was TLA funded to get their bot personalities trained up properly to take over from whoever is voted in as president. The Trump training seemed to have worked.

If they took Tay, the new IBM neural processor and put them in a custom commission of the Japanese Tourist Info Bots nobody would notice.

They need an alternative now Jim Henson isn't around to build them.

[annodomini2]

Awaits to hear...

This has been used in some next generation ransomware.

[Kepler]

Do **Microsoft employees** have self-awareness?

“Explaining its decision to open up the BotBuilder framework, Microsoft says – without any trace of irony – that 'at this point few developers have the expertise and tools needed to create new conversational experiences[,] or enable existing applications and services with a conversational interface their users can enjoy'.”

(All emphasis added.)

Microsoft's collective head is so far up its collective arse, it isn't funny! When have Microsoft's customers ever encountered a conversational interface they could enjoy? Bob? Clippy?

(As I thought I'd noted elsewhere previously, but evidently did not, at least the cartoon search dog with the wagging tail was mildly cute! But still kind-of in the way.)

Until Microsoft's employees achieve self-awareness, I'm certainly not going to worry about any of the software they write ever doing so.