:: You could be forgiven for thinking you were reading an extract from a science fiction novel, or a psychological thriller, but Facebook were forced to shut down an experiment involving two robots, when they started talking to each other in a language they created.

The research being carried out was to see if two artificial intelligence creations (AI), named “Bob” and “Alice,” could learn how to negotiate.

What they had not expected was that when the two AIs were left alone, a language evolved between the two and they started a completely different conversation of their own with no human input, researchers revealed.

On realizing what had happened Facebook’s scientists shut the robots down.

The AIs, known as “chatbots,” are usually only created to hold short conversations, but Facebook announced late last month that it had created a code allowing the bots to have more sophisticated conversations with either another bot or a human.