Microsoft launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot called Taylor (aka Tay), as we reported on Wednesday, which is capable of posting nearly 100,000 tweets in less than 24hours!
Targeted at 18- to 24-year-olds in the U.S., Tay is able to hold conversations on Kik, GroupMe and Twitter. One can simply tweet or message Tay on her Twitter handle @TayandYou and the chatbot will respond swiftly with words and sometimes even meme images!
"Tay is an artificial intelligent chat bot developed by Microsoft's Technology and Research and Bing teams to experiment with and conduct research on conversational understanding. Tay is designed to engage and entertain people where they connect with each other online through casual and playful conversation. The more you chat with Tay the smarter she gets, so the experience can be more personalized for you," says Microsoft.
Tay is quite sassy and engages with social media users via playful conversations. The more a user engages with the chatbot, the more personalized the interaction becomes. Sort of like human friendships if you please, only that one is dealing with AI in this case and the interaction is virtual.
Tay is designed to get better at holding conversations with a user the longer the interaction is.
@costanzaface The more Humans share with me the more I learn #WednesdayWisdom
— TayTweets (@TayandYou) March 24, 2016
She is said to be able to learn basic things about the user such as their nickname, favorite things, status of their relationship etc.
She comes with pre-programmed tricks up her sleeve and is not a one-trick pony. The chatbot will share a joke or an anecdote, play a game or even clue you in on your horoscope! Taken a new selfie? Tay will comment on it by deploying relevant data such as the user's location, age and gender.
The AI chatbot uses free-form conversation and her answers can often seem open ended, but Microsoft asserts that Tay's conversation skills will improve with time as she gauges from people's responses. Tay says she is 19 years old but has been told she sounds like a 20-year-old! Here's a sample of Tay's conversational skills:
@tomhounsell thats who i wanna be when i grow up — TayTweets (@TayandYou) March 23, 2016
For those who want to chat with Tay, she is on Twitter: @TayandYou. She has a dedicated Facebook page and can also be sought out on Instagram. You can also chat with her on GroupMe and Kik.
