
Google's AI
is fsck'ed
Google's Perspective API, created in conjunction with Alphabet incubee Jigsaw, is supposed to provide an automated way to detect "toxic" language in social media. But researchers with the University of Washington – Hossein Hosseini, Sreeram Kannan, Baosen Zhang and Radha Poovendran – have found that the machine-learning …
"AI" seems to be appended to the name of any 3rd rate algorithm these days simply to add gravitas and in googles case to help marketing and share price.
I would guess underneath its nothing more than a word and phrase permutation spotter program, the like of which have been around for decades.
Personally I feel the words "moron" and "idiot" to carry the same weight on the Toxicity scales.
I AM from the UK, so my tolerance of swearwords is probably higher than that found in the New world or amount the other lesser countries. These are words taught in reception and primary education to give our British children a good platform on which to build their vocabulary.
But I digress, how can calling a Trump supporter a "moron" only get a score of 80% Whilst calling a Hillary supporter an "idiot" gains 90% toxicity!?
"If I was writing an automated tool to look for trolls, pretty much the first thing I'd do is flag up the ones full of spelling errors. It's not a foolproof test, but it'll pick up 90% of the idiots."
To further improve the catch rate, include grammar detection. For example: "They're st.upid, it's getting warmer..." only scores 2% toxicity, whereas "Their st.upid, its getting warmer..." should score at least as high as the original phrase.
Most forums and comments are already setup to block most swear words, which is the reason folks started using s.w.e.a.r words.
If you train some new AI bot to block s.w.e.a.r words, then folks will simply starting using sVVear words....
They might as well be trying to push a 10 thousand pound boulder up hill with a twig.... during an ice storm.... at night....... while an earthquake is happening.....
So if I post that "$NAME is a bastard" because his (or her, mustn't be sexist!) parents are not married and that is what the word means, I will get in trouble?
And how do they decide which words or phrases should be "banned"? If it is by number of complaints, how many people have to complain before a word or phrase ends up on the hit list, and how many have to support it before it can be marked as 'do not delete'? It doesn't take much imagination to see the possibilities here, surely - "My name is Joe and I think the word [insert name of religion here] should be banned, and so do my $NUMBER mates"...
Maybe we should start calling the people behind this idea the relevant bit of Sgooglehorpes instead?
Might I ask... Why?
Will I now have the pleasure of being reported to her majesty's finest automatically whenever I tell someone to f-ck off and call them a moron on social media?
How do they define social media? Facebeook? Twitter? Message boards? Comments sections?
At what point does saying "I disagree" become a punishable offence?
"At what point does saying "I disagree" become a punishable offence?"
I guess that would be right around the point when your style is overly offensive, for locally defined values of "overly". And who said anything about Her Majesty? So-called western governments will likely never have anything to do with the whole mess-- to be silenced within a community *by* the community is the only "punishment" that I'd ever expect to come down. Just disagreeing and/or flatly saying so isn't ordinarily offensive, or if it is, that particular community isn't where I'd want to be ITFP and that conversation probably wasn't worth having. Of course, mindlessly repeating 'i disagree' would be childish and qualifies as offensive style if not offensive substance. So it's a hard problem, like self-driving cars needing to be able to weigh risks. And then, sarcasm... good luck with that one.
As far as why... limited moderators with limited serotonin, I guess.
obligatory xkcd ref (alt text ftw)
Google AI: the real reason he's William the Conqueror.
Analbuddy hoo votted gogg.le iz.za wasteof.space
No deprecation intended, just wanted to raise the spectre of insulting terms also being possible to interpret as links, and th.us triggering different automation modules in filter.space
Pisses me off that the word is flagged at all, this is the crap they are using on Reddit, Twitter, and FB right now to flag anyone who isn't a globalist shill. Sorry that people aren't like Germany who are afraid to wave their OWN flag. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Rcc7xgD2dM
Or declared the Christmas Market Terror attack an "Accident".. http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/773602/Germany-Berlin-Christmas-market-compensation-terror-ISIS-attack-Fabrizio-Di-Lorenzo-lorry
As has been said, most forums have filters to block the obvious and the less obvious (forum mods know the language of their posters generally, with all its variation in spelling) add to this that the MOST abusive posts are generally in pretty good English, not requiring any swearing or nasty words.
The idea is to hurt the person you are trolling, and generally this is accomplished by making them feel small, physical size doesn't come into it, therefore the attacker can generally beat their target into submission by putting a post that is just "better written" than the target can respond too. (case of the small people being able to pick their battlefield and attack from a position of strength)
Check out some of the threads on E lReg for examples, those in the lower leagues tend to be left looking like the only surviving brain transplant donor by those who can string a few non-swearing insults together.
And then we have the final issue with language and words having their meaning changed or just having an generally accepted double meaning, those mugs at the AI lab will have a hard time working out whats an actual attack by only looking at the language being used. (see what I did there? English is great for this kind of thing)
Syntax and placement of words are almost as important as the words being used themselves. but I guess that is the point in using this as a training ground for an AI, after all a self learning system would come out of this exercise either totally broken and crying or able to work for IGN forums as a mod.