Google fires engineer who said AI tech has feelings

Google has fired one of its engineers who said the company's artificial intelligence system has feelings.

Last month, Blake Lemoine went public with his theory that Google's language technology is sentient and should therefore have its "wants" respected.

Google, plus several AI experts, denied the claims and on Friday the company confirmed he had been sacked.

Mr. Lemoine told the BBC he is getting legal advice and declined to comment further.

In a statement, Google said Mr. Lemoine's claims about The Language Model for Dialogue Applications (Lamda) were "wholly unfounded" and that the company worked with him for "many months" to clarify this.

"So, it's regrettable that despite lengthy engagement on this topic, Blake still chose to persistently violate clear employment and data security policies that include the need to safeguard product information," the statement said.

Lamda is a breakthrough technology that Google says can engage in free-flowing conversations. It is the company's tool for building chatbots.