Slack tweaks its principles in response to user outrage at AI slurping

Salesforce division Slack has responded to criticism by users outraged that its privacy principles allowed the messaging service to slurp customer data for AI training unless specifically told not to, claiming the data never leaves the platform and isn't used to train "third party" models. The app maker said its ML models were …

[Pascal Monett]

"emoji recommendations" ?

You're using a power-guzzling, GPU-enhanced platform to make emoji recommendations ?

Please shut that shit down forthwith and bend over while I administer a sound Oxford-prefect beating to your lilly-white behind to educate you in what is acceptable as far as ML is concerned.

[b0llchit]

Re: "emoji recommendations" ?

They are trying to find out when the sarcasm emoji is appropriate to present. That is a very difficult decision. For me, well, I have severe difficulty to determing when not to use the sarcasm emoji. So, for that purpose, here is it:

/s

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: "emoji recommendations" ?

They said they used ML to make emoji recommendations. That doesn't mean a large transformer model. It could be as simple as a small HMM that could easily run on a laptop. And such an HMM would probably be approximately as useful (i.e., not at all) as a very large DL model.

While I agree that any cycles spent on recommending emoji is too many cycles, this may well actually be a very small amount of computing power relative to some of the other things Slack, and the rest of Salesforce, does.

[b0llchit]

The Friendly TOS

...cloud vendors like Slack and...[...and all other vendor owned "user" forums]...

People are stupid. When will they finally understand that Cloud == NotMyComputer and CloudVendor == CompanyMisappropriatingMyData. Oh right, they don't understand and are only following the candy that is held hanging in front of their faces.

FWIW, they get what they deserve because they were stupid enough to sign up for it without reading the details and understanding the consequences.

[Postscript]

IP?

I don't work for Slack, nor do I want to. I am pretty sure my employer considers all our work to be their Intellectual Property. How do they keep the rights to our work if Slack just takes it all?

[m4r35n357]

Re: IP?

That is your employer's problem, not yours ;)

[Anonymous Coward]

Insert

[obligatory Groucho Marx quotation].

[Throatwarbler Mangrove]

Re: Insert

"What it was doing in my pajamas, I'll never know"?

[Fred Daggy]

Re: Insert

.... I think ...

I'd never buy my data from a company that would sell me my data?

[ChrisElvidge]

Industry standard?

"Slack has industry-standard platform-level machine learning models to make the product experience better for customers"

where "industry standard" means "slurp everything"

[MudFever]

Collecting my data without my permission. Automatic opt-in, as opposed to user opt-in. Sounds a bit like a breach of GDPR to me.