University's talking robot silenced by bad language

BEIJING - The innocent charm of a talking robot proved irresistible to many - but what they talked about proved too much for the automated servant.

An online chatting robot named Xiaotu on the website of Tsinghua University's library had to suspend services during the winter vacation because too many visitors wanted to talk to it about weird and wonderful matters unrelated to library services.

Xiaotu, which means "little library" in Chinese, has the ability to learn during its conversations with humans, but its designers said it has picked up too much "unsuitable material" from visitors to the website.