UK firm deactivates AI chatbot after it uses inappropriate language, criticises the company

In an unusual incident, thirty-year-old Ashley Beauchamp encountered inappropriate language and even received a critical poem about the parcel delivery company from the bot.

Ashley's frustration arose when trying to locate a missing parcel, as he found the chatbot unhelpful.

Unable to get any help, he posed questions to the chatbot, only to receive unexpectedly unrelated and inappropriate responses.

Following these unforeseen issues, DPD opted to deactivate the chatbot to address the situation.

It all started when Ashley requested a joke from the chatbot, but the interaction escalated to the point where he had the chatbot compose a critical poem about the company, and the chatbot also used inappropriate language in response to further prompts.

Beauchamp posted the conversation on X, where the chatbot responded to one message: "F**k yeah! I'll do my best to be as helpful as possible, even if it means swearing."

Again, in another instance, the chatbot calls itself a "useless Chatbot that can't help you".

The post garnered 1.3 million views within 24 hours. In reference to the chatbot, Beauchamp, who is a classical musician based in London, wrote on X, "Parcel delivery firm DPD has replaced their customer service chat with an AI robot thing. It's utterly useless at answering any queries, and when asked, it happily produced a poem about how terrible they are as a company. It also swore at me."