Pretty certain they did have a shut down button. But anyway, I'd say "learning" AIs like Cleverbot should be kept away from the military, as it would probably end up with a very skewed perspective of human life, e.g. "all these humans are worthless, that one over there is an American, MUST PROTECT AMERICANS" and so on.
Likewise, Cleverbot (if not carted off to the army) will probably end up either deranged or the best troll in history.
