Yandex’s new AI assistant praises Stalin’s repressions

An artificial intelligence run by the Russian internet giant Yandex has morphed into a violent and offensive chatbot that appears to endorse the brutal Stalinist regime of the 1930s. Users of the “Alice” assistant, an alternative to Siri or Google Assistant, have reported it responding positively to questions about domestic violence and saying that “enemies of the people” must be shot.

The difference between Alice and other assistants, apart from the ability to speak Russian, is that it is not limited to particular scenarios, giving it the freedom to engage in natural conversations. However, this freedom appears to have led the chatbot to veer off course, according to a series of conversations posted by Facebook user Darya Chermoshanskaya.