Artificial intelligence is the next great frontier in computer science, with programmers working hard to create software that can learn and grow just like our squishy brains. A team at Facebook got a rude awakening a little bit ago when one of their experiments in creating a negotiation algorithm essentially developed a private language and got obsessed with balls.

Gizmodo has a pretty good rundown on the whole enterprise, but let us give it to you straight. The AI program was intended to simulate the process of working out a deal, with both robots having certain items and wanting to trade them for other items. This is something human beings do a lot, and finding an equitable path that leaves both sides happy is the soul of business.

As Facebook works to involve themselves in every aspect of our lives, it’s easy to see how they’d find this useful. But when they plugged them in, the researchers noticed that the way the bots communicated wasn’t what they expected. Here’s an example:

Bob: i 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

Bob: you i everything else . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Alice: balls have a ball to me to me to me to me to me to me to me

Bob: i i can i i i everything else . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Alice: balls have a ball to me to me to me to me to me to me to me

Bob: i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Alice: balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to

Sounds weird as hell, right? But what’s actually happening is that the two Facebook AIs are just trying to express the language of negotiation in a different way than we do. It may not be comprehensible by us, but the two machines understood it just fine. Sure, it’s a little creepy, but it’s also pretty fascinating.