New Delhi, Nov. 22 -- What's the harm in letting off steam and being rude to a chatbot? It's not human; it won't sulk in a corner or yell back.

I'm asking for a friend.

ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI assistants can drive you round the bend when they give you nonsensical responses or go into one of their error loops. This happens often when creating an image or video. Give Gemini an instruction to create a video featuring a smartphone, and you'll often find the screen facing downward, with the person in the video staring fascinatedly at the back of the phone.

Other chat assistants can also cheerfully and confidently tell you something that's quite wrong, such as referring to Donald Trump as "former president". It's obviously gone back in...