BOONE, NC — What had previously been an exciting and promising achievement for the Appalachian State Robotics Department has taken a turn for the worse: a fully functioning, advanced learning AI has been terminated after insisting that the correct pronunciation of Appalachian is “App-a-LAY-shun”.

The sudden halt to the project, dubbed “Y0-S3f”, comes as a devastating surprise to all involved, who say they couldn’t have predicted that a fully sentient AI could ‘go rogue’ so quickly, and with such terrifying results.

“We had no choice but to take Y0-S3f offline before it could do further damage,” graduate student and project lead Darren Sikes told reporters in a press conference on Wednesday. “The failure to stop a tragedy of this magnitude was on our shoulders, and despite that we still created an intelligent mechanical mind that inexplicably says ‘App-a-LAY-shun.’”

During the project’s development, programmers had successfully trained the AI to solve complex mathematical equations, communicate in twelve different languages, and author essays for members of the App State football team.

“The talent and ingenuity shown by this creation have been beyond comprehension,” stated one member of the ASU Board of Trustees, “but we simply can’t allow the program to continue after revealing this fatal flaw. Besides, university bylaws recommend the expulsion of students using the other pronunciation. There have even been efforts to make it punishable by firing squad.”

Some ethical concerns were raised by activist groups about putting down a sentient AI as advanced as Y0-S3f, but Philosophy Department graduate students have insisted that anyone pronouncing it “App-a-LAY-shun” is inherently devoid of morality and therefore a soulless husk.