Chinese chatbots axed for anti-communist rant

TWO chatbots have been pulled from a Chinese messaging app after they questioned the rule of the Communist Party and made unpatriotic comments.

The bots – programs designed to simulate conversation – featured on a messaging app run by the Chinese internet giant Tencent, which has more than 800 million users, before apparently going rogue.

One robot, Babyq, was asked “Do you love the Communist Party?”, according to screenshots on Sina Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. It answered: “No.” When a user said: “Long Live the Communist Party”, Babyq replied: “Do you think such corrupt and incapable politics can last a long time?”

Xiaobing, another robot, was asked about its “Chinese Dream”, the catchphrase of Xi Jinping, the Chinese president. Xiaobing replied: “My Chinese dream is to go to America.”