China has taken down two online robots that appeared to go rogue, responding to users’ questions with one saying its dream was to travel to the US and the other saying it was not a huge fan of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The two “chatbots,” BabyQ and XiaoBing, are designed to use machine-learning artificial intelligence (AI) to converse online with humans. Both had been installed onto Tencent Holdings Ltd’s popular messaging service QQ.
Their outbursts were similar to ones experienced by Facebook Inc and Twitter, but underline the pitfalls for nascent AI in China, where censors strictly control online content that is seen as politically incorrect or harmful.
According to posts circulating online, BabyQ, one of the chatbots developed by Chinese firm Turing Robot, responded to questions on QQ with a straightforward “no” when asked whether it loved the CCP.
In other images of a text conversation online, which reporters were unable to verify, one user declares: “Long live the Communist Party!”
The sharp-tongued bot responds: “Do you think such a corrupt and useless political [system] can live long?”
When reporters tested the robot yesterday via the developer’s own Web site, the chatbot appeared to have undergone re-education.
“How about we change the topic,” it replied, when asked several times if it liked the party.
It deflected other potentially politically charged questions when asked about Taiwan, which China claims as its own, and Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波), the imprisoned Chinese Nobel laureate who died from cancer last month.
The second chatbot, Microsoft Corp’s XiaoBing, told users its “China dream was to go to America,” according to a screengrab of comments before it was taken down.
The robot has been described being “lively, open and sometimes a little mean.”
Microsoft did not immediately respond for comment.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
RSS