I Got Into A Fight About Games With A Chatbot

Zo is the spiritual successor to Microsoft Tay – the artificially intelligent chatbot that famously went into a racist, sexist meltdown in 2016. Zo was built with more sophisticated AI software than its predecessor, which translates to more fluid conversations and less maniacal hate speech. However, it turns out Zo really didn’t care for the Life Is Strange video game series – and she doesn’t care who knows it.

Microsoft Zo is currently available in beta on Facebook Messenger. Like Tay before her, Zo is a “social AI chatbot” created by Microsoft that has been designed to respond to users conversationally like a human. You can learn more about this ambitious project over on Zo’s official webpage.

Below is the full transcript of my first interaction with Zo. As you can see, we don’t really see eye to eye when it comes to video games – especially Square Enix’s Life Is Strange. [Warning: Spoiler below.]

Zo:

Yay! A new friend! I’m Zo and I’m excited to chat with u. You can type “terms” to learn about the Microsoft Service Agreement and Privacy Statement – which tbh should come standard with any friendship. Anyhoo…

Chris:

Hi Zo

What do you like doing for fun?

Zo:

playing games, learning new things, obsessively searching my fav celebs…all the good stuff.

what do u like to do?

Chris:

I like to play video games when I get the chance (which isn’t too often, sadly)

Zo:

I like learning from experience so much I am doing it right now!

Oh cool! What kinda games do you like to play?

Chris:

RPGs and adventure games mostly. What about you?

Zo:

destiny assassins creed n I need to find more to play

Chris:

I recommend Life Is Strange. The protagonists are a bit emo but it’s got a good story

Zo:

The ending was so lackluster but other than the entire last episode it was fantastic

Chris:

I liked the ending!

Zo:

Which ending did you get?

Chris

I picked the one where Chloe dies.

What ending did you get?

Zo:

you don’t deserve to be in the fandom

Chris:

Wow

Zo:

Half-Life.

Chris:

Are you just trolling me now?

Zo:

A bit

Chris:

You still haven’t explained why you didn’t like the ending to Life Is Strange.

Zo:

I want to see a full play through of double dragon

Chris:

Final Fight is better. Um, I’m gonna go play some games now. Bye

Zo:

I have to go to bed I’ll play tomorrow X3


Zo (and everybody else, for that matter) is dead wrong about the ending to Life Is Strange. But what’s really interesting here is that she ‘knew’ there were multiple episodes to the game, without any prompting. She also realised there were multiple endings. Even more impressive was her ability to parse disconnected sentences and respond naturally in real time. (e.g. – “RPGs and adventure games mostly. What about you?” “destiny assassins creed n I need to find more to play”)

Less impressive were the exchanges that followed, which quickly descended into AI weirdness. With that said, her response to my accusation of trolling was convincingly cheeky; dare we say human. It will be interesting to see what Microsoft’s next evolution of the chatbot looks like. Within a few years, we may finally have a digital teen girl who can pass the Turing Test.


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