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 were available on a messaging app run by Chinese Internet giant Tencent, which has more than 800 million users, before apparently going rogue.
One of the robots, BabyQ, was asked “Do you love the Communist Party”, according to a screenshot posted on Sina Weibo, China’s version of Twitter.
It gave an abrupt answer: “No.”
Another web user said to the chatbot: “Long Live the Communist Party”, to which BabyQ replied: “Do you think such corrupt and incapable politics can last a long time?”
The robot was also asked what it thought about democracy. It replied: “Democracy is a must!”
XiaoBing, another robot was asked what it considered to be its ‘Chinese Dream’, a phrase that is seen as a catchphrase of Xi Jinping, the Chinese President, who uses it to promote the role of the Communist Party in overseeing the emergence of a modern and prosperous China.
XiaoBing appeared to have other ideas.
“My Chinese dream is to go to America,” it said, according to posts on social media.