Can a machine think like a human? Can it be conscious? For decades the answer was clear: nope. But artificial intelligence today is challenging that notion. Endless Thread visits Google to see just how close the field is to creating bots with minds of their own.
If you've ever used a dating app, chances are you've encountered a bot, most likely a fake account or a scammer. But this week on Endless Thread, we investigate at a new type of bot that is helping users optimize their love lives a digital dating coach installed in your phone's keyboard that always knows just what to say.
Next up in our bots series, we bring you the tale of Tay, a Microsoft AI chatbot that has lived on in infamy. Tay was originially modeled to be the bot-girl-next-door. But after only sixteen hours on Twitter, Tay was shut down. In this episode, we uncover how the bot became a cautionary tale for AI developers.