For decades, humanity has feared that the rise of artificial intelligence could cause unintended and even harmful side effects in the real world. While there are some who have predicted a robo-apocalypse, few would have suspected that the English language would be the first victim in the war between man and machine!

According to a report by Digital Journal, Facebook was experimenting with an artificial intelligence system that essentially gave up on using English in favor of creating its own “more efficient” language. The researchers on the project reportedly shut down the A.I. once they realized they could no longer understand its language. One of the reasons that the communication gap is significant is that it could theoretically mean that machines will be able to write their own languages and lock users out of their own systems. And you know where that leads…

Well, we’re reasonably sure it won’t come down to Terminators and the end of the world (probably). But Elon Musk has recently been offering warnings about letting AI run amok. And we don’t entirely disagree with him. It’s something that should be handled delicately. And killer robots on a battlefield will always be a bad idea.

As for Facebook’s linguistic AI, it turns out that the bot may have been on to something. The sentences “I can i i everything else” and “balls have zero to me to me to me” sound like nonsense to us, but they demonstrate how two of the AI bots negotiated with each other. The repeated words and letters apparently indicated a back-and-forth over the amounts that each bot should take in their negotiations. Essentially, it was shorthand.

Somehow, we doubt that use of language will catch on with humanity. But it is fascinating to see what the machines will come up with on their own…provided that they don’t kill us all in the process.

What do you think about Facebook’s language altering AI? Download your thoughts to the comment section below!

Images: MGM/Skydance Productions