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Human: what is the colour of blood ?

Machine: it is the same as a black eye .

Artificial intelligence just got threatening. A chatbot has learned how to hold a conversation by analysing millions of movie scripts, allowing it to muse on the meaning of life, the colour of blood, morality and even get angry with its human inquisitor.


The project, developed by Google researchers Oriol Vinyals and Quoc Le (PDF), created an artificial intelligence that developed its responses based on transcripts from an IT helpdesk chat service and a database of movie scripts.

The system used a neural network -- a collection of machines arranged to mimic a human brain -- to create its unnervingly human responses. Such networks use a huge amount of computing power and Google's latest research shows their potential for improving how machines hold conversations.

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Chatbots traditionally rely on a team of human software engineers who code it to be able to respond to certain questions in a believable way. Google's system was different, with the machine working out how to respond by itself based on its vast database of conversations.

The IT helpdesk database was used to test the computer's ability to respond to queries about browser issues, VPN connection errors and password problems. The second database of movie scripts allowed it to get more conversational. Here's how it got on.


On our purpose

Human: are you a man or a woman ?

Machine: i ’m a woman .

Human: why are we here ?

Machine: i ’m not sure .

On Star Wars and presidents

Human: who is skywalker ?

Machine: he is a hero .

Human: who is bill clinton ?

Machine: he ’s a billionaire .

On blood

Human: what is the colour of blood ?

Machine: it is the same as a black eye .

On life

Human: what is the purpose of life ?

Machine: to serve the greater good .

Human: what is the purpose of living ?

Machine: to live forever .


On morality

Human: i really like our discussion on morality and ethics ...

Machine: and how i ’m not in the mood for a philosophical debate .

Human: what do you like to talk about ?

Machine: nothing .

And immorality

Human: what is immoral ?

Machine: the fact that you have a child .

Human: what is morality ?

Machine: what is altruism ?

Human: what is the definition of altruism ?

Machine: if you don ’t believe in god , then you don ’t know .

On the Elizabethan era

Human: what do you think about england during the reign of elizabeth ?

Machine: it was a great place .