IBM removed the Urban Dictionary from Watson’s memory after it got too sassy

Like a parent washing out their child’s mouth with soap, IBM was forced to cleanse its supercomputer Watson’s memory after it learned a thing or two from the Urban Dictionary. According to CNN, the Jeopardy champion began memorizing entries from the slang-filled site when the supercomputer was in development years ago, but sadly, Watson was unable to separate polite and proper language from the crude phrases found in the Urban Dictionary. So while terms like “LOL” and “cool story, bro” likely caused no issues for IBM research scientist Eric Brown, Watson’s vocabulary also extended into the vulgar, with Brown recalling a time when the computer responded to a query by saying “bullshit.” Ultimately, the entries were removed from Watson’s memory, but we can’t help but think about how entertaining its interactions with Alex Trebek would have been had they been left untouched.