Why a Chatbot Creeped Out Microsoft's AI-Focused CEO

Microsoft bots, AI will not replace humans or unnerve users, Nadella says

Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., speaks during a conversation at the DreamForce Conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015.
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

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By Dina Bass

March 31, 2016 at 10:00 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

In February, Microsoft Corp. Vice President Derrick Connell visited the Bing search team in Hyderabad, India, to oversee a Monday morning hackathon. The goal was to build bots--artificial intelligence programs that chat with users to automate things like shopping and customer service. Connell's boss, Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella, thinks they're the next big thing, a successor to apps.

The Bing team was so excited they showed up Sunday night to throw a party and brought their spouses and kids. There was even the Indian version of a piñata. Some engineers hacked a Satya-bot that answered questions like "what's Microsoft's mission?" and "where did you go to college?" in Nadella's voice by culling quotes from his speeches and interviews.