01/13/2025

Agile Optimism

Inside the mind of great growth leaders

One early spring day in 2016, Microsoft engineers unveiled a curve-jumping piece of technology. "Tay" was one of the world’s first AI-powered chatbots, and this big bet on AI represented many of the hopes and dreams for the future of the Redmond Giant. In the two years since Satya Nadella had taken the helm as CEO, optimism had been soaring hand-in-hand with the stock price. The lumbering giant finally seemed to have found its footing once again. Now, Tay would signal the beginning of a proud new era of growth and innovation.  

Then disaster struck. A few hours after Tay’s release on Twitter, internet trolls began bombarding Tay with sexist and racist remarks. Within a day, Tay churned out over 96,000 tweets that became increasingly offensive with every passing minute. The media lambasted Tay as a "failure" and a "humiliation." At the company whose famous founder was notorious for telling his brightest people, "That's the stupidest f*%#ing idea I've ever heard," the future did not look bright for Tay's creators.

But Satya Nadella was not Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer. After Microsoft publicly accepted blame and apologized for Tay’s lewd remarks, Nadella wrote a personal message to Tay's engineers, saying, "Keep pushing and know that I am with you."

Please select this link to read the complete article from SmartBrief.