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Last month, researchers at Facebook found two bots developed in the social network's AI division had been communicating with each other in an unexpected way. The bots, named Bob and Alice, had generated a language all on their own:

Bob: "I can 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."

That might look like gibberish or a string of typos, but researchers say it's actually a kind of shorthand. Here's the backstory: In June, Facebook announced an initiative at FAIR, or Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research, in which the company was developing bots that could negotiate.

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Facebook's bots were left to themselves to communicate as they chose, and they were given no directive to stick to English. So the bots began to deviate from the script in order to become more effective at deal-making.

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