Microsoft's Santa on the Naughty List

Who's been naughty this year? Microsoft's Santa Claus IM bot, that's who. PC World and Metro UK have recently reported that a program designed to respond to children via Windows Live Messenger could be easily duped into responding to lude and suggestive dialogue. (Source: metro.co.uk)

The error was first discovered in an exchange that went something like this:

• User: eat it
   
• Santa: No thank you. I don't eat things!
   
• User: eat it
   
• Santa: See if you can get someone else to eat it!
   
• User: eat it.
   
• Santa: You want me to eat what?!? It's fun to talk about oral sex, but I want to chat about something else...
   
• User: You dirty bastard!
   
• Santa: I think you're dirty bastard. (Source: gizmodo.com)

Microsoft confirmed there was an alleged problem and released this statement to Network World:

"Yesterday we received reports that the automated Santa Claus agent in Windows Live Messenger used inappropriate language. As soon as we were alerted, we took steps to mitigate the issue, including the removal of language from the agent's automated script. We were not completely satisfied with the result of these actions, and have decided to discontinue the automated Santa Claus agent."

Apparently once Santa's loophole was 'exposed', the feeding frenzy of who could get the naughtiest response from Santa began. PC world reported this entertaining response:

• User:.....come on you like big hairy men -- don't hide it!
   
• Santa: I know, I know. I just hope you won't get mad at me. (Source: pcworld.com)

IM services often use bots to spice up the popularity of their interface. The program is essentially a conduit that accesses information on a database and then relays the result to a user. The bots are also used for more mundane tasks like news, weather information, stock quotes and so on.

Of course, this brings up the question of who taught Santa to talk dirty in the first place? Mrs. Claus did not return our calls for comment.