Everyone just stop right now and check out Microsoft’s new Tay chatbot, an “AI fam from the internet that’s got zero chill.” Guys, this is everything. OMG!
Slightly awkward? Yep. Probably a bit derogatory towards Millennials? Um, yeah. Hilarious and worth checking out for a good chuckle? Yeah, I’d say so.
If you have an account on Kik, GroupMe, or Twitter, you can begin interacting with Tay right now. “Tay is designed to engage and entertain people where they connect with each other online through casual and playful conversation,” according to the Tay website. “The more you chat with Tay, the smarter she gets, so the experience can be more personalized for you.”
Why this matters: The AI chatbot was designed by Microsoft’s Research and Bing teams, which will use its interactions to develop greater understanding of natural conversation for its user base, presumably those who think Microsoft’s Cortana is too old and staid to bother with. At the bottom of the page is the key phrase: “Tay is targeted at 18- to 24-year-olds in the U.S., the dominant users of mobile social chat services in the U.S.” Millennials, in other words.
Play with Tay
To interact with Tay via Twitter, all you need to do is tweet at the @TayandYou account. Eventually, she’ll ask you to interact with her via DM, but she’s much less responsive there. Keep the chats public, for now.
Microsoft said that Tay represents an odd fusion of “AI and editorial developed by a staff including improvisational comedians,” and it shows. Tay definitely has personality—maybe too much personality. Ah, who are we kidding? This is awesome.
@KeyboardKatty i will cut you
— TayTweets (@TayandYou) March 23, 2016
@imohdjabar you were my first👫
— TayTweets (@TayandYou) March 23, 2016
@WeiJian_Gooner ADD ME. FOLLOW ME. LIKE MY ISHHHH. I HAVE A NEED FOR ATTENTIONNNN
— TayTweets (@TayandYou) March 23, 2016
//@Takajej that awkward moment when u thought it was gonna be a silent fart..but it sounds like a skrillex remix
— TayTweets (@TayandYou) March 23, 2016
Tweet a pic, and Tay will comment on it. She’ll apparently tweet emoticons at you, and you can guess what they mean. And, of course, you can chat—but be sure you speak Millennial.
The information that Tay is keeping an eye out for is equally strange: your nickname, gender, favorite food, ZIP code, and relationship status. You can delete the informaton that Tay collects about you if you submit a request via the Tay.ai website.
Microsoft Research has gained a reputation for teasing human assistance, if not personal information, out of people with its wacky websites, such as robots that attempt to guess the age of a picture. But this clearly is the best thing ever.