Tencent has shut down two of its newest “chatbots” over criticism of the Chinese government by the simple artificially intelligent entities.
The popular Chinese messaging app Tencent QQ removed two of its automated chat companions only months after their release after users reported that they were criticizing the ruling Communist Party and promoting democracy.
“Baby Q” and “Little Bing” were created to answer general user questions, report the weather, and even give horoscopes. Unfortunately, for their brief virtual lifespans, they were also unimpressed by the state of the Chinese government.
When a user entered “long live the Communist party” in a chat with Baby Q, the cartoon penguin answered the statement with a question of its own: “Do you think that such a corrupt and incompetent political regime can live forever?” When it was asked whether democracy was “good or not,” Baby Q asserted that there “needs to be democracy!”
A former Tencenct employee reportedly told Apple Daily that the bot was likely developed with universal responses, rather than ones that were China-specific.
Tencent is already under increased scrutiny from the Chinese government, being accused in July of pushing addictive “poison” over the video games it creates.
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