The tech industry wants to use women’s voices – they just won't listen to them

AI such as Microsoft's Tay show why we need more women in tech - and how the male-dominated industry is failing to consider their real-life counterparts

By now you've likely heard the story of Tay, Microsoft's social AI experiment that went from "friendly millennial girl" to genocidal misogynist in less than a day. While Tay promised to learn from her interactions with people online, Microsoft apparently hasn't learned anything from the countless headlines about how Twitter users like to talk to visible women - everything from gleefully anarchic trolling to threats and abuse - otherwise it would have seen this coming.

At first, Tay's story seems like a fun one for anyone who's interested in cautionary sci-fi. What does it mean for the future of artificial intelligence if a bot can embody the worst aspects of digital culture after just 16 hours online? If any AI is given the vastness of human creation to study at lightning speed, will it inevitably turn evil? Will the future be a content creation battle for their souls?