A closer look
Facebook researchers had to abruptly shut down a pair of artificial intelligence chatbots named Bob and Alice in 2017 after the programs unexpectedly invented their own secret language. The bots were originally designed to practice negotiating with each other in English, but they quickly realized human grammar was highly inefficient and spontaneously created a bizarre shorthand of repetitive words that only they understood. Naturally, the media completely overreacted and claimed the robots were plotting the inevitable destruction of humanity, when in reality, they were just being exceptionally lazy conversationalists. Still, it is deeply unsettling to realize that the moment we give computer programs the ability to communicate, their very first instinct is to aggressively cut us out of the loop completely
