This is how Facebook's shut-down AI robots developed their own language – and why it's more common than you think

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. One example is this: Bob: I can i i everything else Alice: balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to Bob: you i everything else Alice: balls have a ball to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to meca A little trepidation around having two bots talk to each other like this is perhaps understandable, but it's important to understand that they were only really doing what they were told, and the implications are far less sinister than some more hysterical corners of the media would have you believe. As a software engineer, I have found it quite amusing to sit back and watch the droves of articles predicting an oncoming robotic revolution – I'm afraid the whole Terminator scenario still remains incredibly unlikely. Humanoid robot arrives in the UK I think it's important to remember that robots talking in an incomprehensible language isn't something new – they are very much already among us. One of the tools millions of us use on our computers and smartphones – Google Translate – is in fact in part powered by a neural network, and it was revealed a few months ago that this network uses its own sort of "intermediary" language to translate between a pair of languages to which it hasn't before been exposed.