AI bot criticises engineer for rejecting its code, sparking concerns over AI bullying and safety

Bullying is not new to human society. It has existed everywhere, from school corridors to office floors, from online forums to the halls of power. Over time, it has taken new forms. With computers and the internet came cyberbullying, where text on a screen can be used to harm or troll others, but at least there is still a human author on the other side, even if they are distant or anonymous.

But what happens when there is no human at all? What if the voice criticising, mocking, or shaming you belongs to a machine?
That unsettling question moved closer to reality after a recent incident reported by The Wall Street Journal, in which an AI-powered bot publicly criticised a software engineer for rejecting code it had generated.