Racist in the Machine: The Disturbing Implications of Algorithmic Bias

DOI: 10.1215/07402775-3813015 T ay’s first words in March of this year were “hellooooooo world!!!” (the “o” in “world” was a planet earth emoji for added whimsy). It was a friendly start for the Twitter bot designed by Microsoft to engage with people aged 18 to 24. But, in a mere 12 hours, Tay went from upbeat conversationalist to foul-mouthed, racist Holocaust denier who said feminists “should all die and burn in hell” and that the actor “ricky gervais learned totalitarianism from adolf hitler, the inventor of atheism.”