IT鈥橲 a tale of two bots.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽
Years of effort have yielded a 鈥渃hild鈥� robot that starts uttering random words after just a few minutes chatting with a human teacher. Impressive, though no human would be fooled for even a moment by its conversation (see 鈥淏abbling robot learns to speak its first words鈥�).
On the flip side, criminals have ripped off innocently designed chatbot software to create digital sweet-talkers that trick the unwary into giving up their credit card numbers or clicking on dubious links (see 鈥淪ilicon sirens: The naughty bots out to seduce you鈥�).
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Childbot and chatbot each reflect facets of human nature. While the former learns from our willingness to teach, the latter exploits our foibles. Learning takes dedication and hard work; exploitation takes ruthlessness and opportunism.
Perhaps the moral of this tale is that we get the bots we deserve.
