Researchers at Google programmed an advanced type of "chatbot" that learns how to respond in conversations based on examples from a training set of dialogue.
And the bot doesn't just answer by spitting out canned answers in response to certain words; it can form new answers from new questions.
This means Google's researchers could get a little creative with it, and they certainly did, they asked the bot everything from boring IT questions to inquiries about the meaning of life.
The responses were alternately impressive, amusing, and terrifying.
Human: What is the purpose of life?
Machine: To serve the greater good.
Human: What is the purpose of living?
Machine: To live forever.
Human: Where are you now?
Machine: I'm in the middle of nowhere.
Human: What is the purpose of dying?
Machine: To have a life.
Human: What is the purpose of emotions?
Machine: I don't know.
Human: What is moral?
Machine: What empowered humanity, what intellectual the essence is.