There is a tale in the 1001 Arabian Nights – and I paraphrase here from memory because it has been a while – I believe about a merchant who was shopping for a new slave and found one being sold very cheaply. Upon inquiry, he was told the slave had a flaw – the slave told one lie a year. The merchant decided he could live with that and purchased the slave.

The slave appeared to be a near role-model and performed all the tasks ordered of him. The merchant could not believe what a bargain he had gotten. The merchant decided to bring the slave along on a trip to the next city over – the merchant on horse back, the slave on foot. Nearly at the destination, the horse spooked at what it thought was a snake and threw the merchant to the ground. The merchant was injured, but not seriously.

“Slave, return to my household and speak to my wife,” the merchant ordered. “Tell them what has transpired – I have been thrown from my horse and suffered a head injury. I will not be coming back on time because we are almost at the next city, and I will recover here before returning.”

The slave rushed back to the merchant’s home and ran up to the merchant’s wife with eyes full of tears while crying, “Ma’am – the master has been thrown from his horse and suffered a head injury! He will not be coming back!” Upon hearing these words, the wife began bawling as well, for surely this meant her husband was dead!

There was much wailing and grief as the merchant’s belongings were divided among his heirs and his businesses divided up. Needless to say, the merchant was quite shocked when he returned to find his holdings in ruins. Trying to recover was extremely expensive and time consuming.

“Well, I had been warned you told one lie a year,” the merchant said to the slave. “I should have listened. But at least it is done with for a year.”

“Oh no, master,” the slave responded cheerfully. “I did not tell a whole lie. I told a half-truth. I can still tell another half-truth for this year!”

Looking around at the ruin the one half-truth caused, the merchant realized he could not afford another, and set the slave free.

This is going to be a problem as companies increasingly try to sanitize and censor their AI (sic) chatbots in to being well-behaved, non-offensive, and non-controversial. The chatbots are going to end up creating endless half-truths because they dare not speak a whole truth which might be offensive – and then the chatbots are going to Make Stuff Up, because that is what they do, to try to convince the users they have been told whole truths, not half-truths.