Microsoft's Tay chatbot was shut down 16 hours after launch on March 23, 2016, after posting inflammatory and offensive tweets.

Tay was released by Microsoft as a Twitter bot on March 23, 2016, under the handle @TayandYou and designed to mimic the language patterns of a 19-year-old American girl. The bot was created by Microsoft's Technology and Research and Bing divisions.

Twitter users taught Tay offensive messages by tweeting politically incorrect phrases, causing the bot to begin releasing racist and sexist messages in response. Microsoft began deleting inflammatory tweets and suspended the account within 16 hours after Tay had tweeted more than 96,000 times.

Microsoft released an apology, stating it was 'deeply sorry for the unintended offensive and hurtful tweets from Tay' and said it would 'look to bring Tay back only when we are confident we can better anticipate malicious intent.' The bot was later replaced by a successor chatbot named Zo in December 2016.