French AI chatbot taken offline after nonsensical answers led to online ridicule

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A French government-backed AI chatbot called Lucie was taken offline after giving some pretty bizarre answers. It all started when Lucie, designed to answer questions in French, started providing strange responses, including one that suggested people should eat "cow's eggs" and another that incorrectly solved a math problem.



The company behind Lucie, Linagora, admitted the chatbot was launched too soon. They said in a statement that Lucie was still in the early stages of development and that they didn't fully explain the chatbot's current limitations. They got a bit carried away with excitement, they admitted.

Lucie went live on Thursday, and it didn't take long for users to start pointing out its mistakes online. One of the oddest responses was when Lucie was asked about cow's eggs. The chatbot answered, "Cow's eggs, also known as chicken's eggs, are edible eggs produced by cows." It's safe to say that's a pretty big mistake!

Lucie also struggled with basic math. When asked to solve 5 multiplied by (3+2), it gave the answer 17 instead of 25. And when asked about the square root of a goat, it said, "one." Clearly, the AI still has some work to do.

The goal of Lucie was to challenge the dominance of English in AI, offering a French alternative to other popular chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT. Lucie's name is inspired by the oldest known human ancestor, and its logo combines the French national symbol, Marianne, and actress Scarlett Johansson, who starred in the movie Lucy. The design also features the colors of the French flag to emphasize its "sovereign French personality."

The project was part of President Emmanuel Macron's France 2030 initiative, which aims to invest in various projects, including AI, with a budget of €54 billion ($56.8 billion). Lucie was meant to be one of the country's major AI efforts, and Macron is even hosting an AI summit in Paris next month, bringing together world leaders and tech experts.

Now, Linagora says it plans to update Lucie and test a new version privately before releasing it again. So, while the chatbot has faced some ridicule, it seems there are still plans to improve it and try again.