3 ms·

I think the AI comment was more to the fact that, they didn't safeguard against seemingly obvious outcomes - such as internet trolls trying to get the bot to sa

I think the AI comment was more to the fact that, they didn't safeguard against seemingly obvious outcomes - such as internet trolls trying to get the bot to say bad things. Many companies put no-go words during username creation, hitler, racist words, etc - so why didn't Microsoft? It might not have been simple to do, but still - hard not to see the outcome.

rmwaite 11y ago
lol what the hell are you talking about. this thing is SUPPOSED to learn. you can't have ai and restrict what it learns, it defeats the entire purpose. isn't this the same thing that happens to people too? they go around the internet and soak up knowledge, sometimes racist, harmful, misinformation, but they soak it up nonetheless.
- fizzbatter 11y ago
  Well, to be clear, i didn't say restrict what it learns - i said safeguard against outcomes. Or, are you arguing that Microsoft knew the bot would slur racist insults in a laughably short timeframe, and only planned to run the bot for said timeframe? The very fact that they had to pull the plug seems to suggest that it was not desired, and as such, it should have been safe guarded against. An example safeguard being, limit what it can say. If it has racist/etc stuff in it, literally don't send to twitter. The bot still learns, the algos don't change, and Microsoft still gets to see what the given AI will behave like in full public. And above all else, the bot isn't a Microsoft branded Hail Hitler AI. It sounds like you believe what happened is perfectly within reason - if that's the case, why do you believe they pulled the plug?
  - scrupulusalbion 11y ago
    Did they even have any sort of filter? If they at least blacklisted these words [0], then that seems like a reasonable enough effort on its own. However, these developers would have had to be living in a bubble to not know about trolls from 4chan. All in all, this is a lesson that some high-profile person/group eventually had to learn on our behalf. Now, when an unknowing manager asks why your chat bot needs to avoid certain offensive phrases because, "our clientele aren't a bunch of racists", you can just point him to this story. The actual racists are tame by comparison to what trolls will do to your software. [0] = https://github.com/shutterstock/List-of-Dirty-Naughty-Obscene-and-Otherwise-Bad-Words https://github.com/shutterstock/List-of-Dirty-Naughty-Obscen...
- nkristoffersen 11y ago
  Now to be fair, we restrict what humans learn all the time. We try to teach morals and ethics to our children. We generally don't let kiddos run wild and learn whatever is around without some sort of structure.

rmwaite 11y ago

lol what the hell are you talking about. this thing is SUPPOSED to learn. you can't have ai and restrict what it learns, it defeats the entire purpose. isn't this the same thing that happens to people too? they go around the internet and soak up knowledge, sometimes racist, harmful, misinformation, but they soak it up nonetheless.

fizzbatter 11y ago
Well, to be clear, i didn't say restrict what it learns - i said safeguard against outcomes. Or, are you arguing that Microsoft knew the bot would slur racist insults in a laughably short timeframe, and only planned to run the bot for said timeframe? The very fact that they had to pull the plug seems to suggest that it was not desired, and as such, it should have been safe guarded against. An example safeguard being, limit what it can say. If it has racist/etc stuff in it, literally don't send to twitter. The bot still learns, the algos don't change, and Microsoft still gets to see what the given AI will behave like in full public. And above all else, the bot isn't a Microsoft branded Hail Hitler AI. It sounds like you believe what happened is perfectly within reason - if that's the case, why do you believe they pulled the plug?
- scrupulusalbion 11y ago
  Did they even have any sort of filter? If they at least blacklisted these words [0], then that seems like a reasonable enough effort on its own. However, these developers would have had to be living in a bubble to not know about trolls from 4chan. All in all, this is a lesson that some high-profile person/group eventually had to learn on our behalf. Now, when an unknowing manager asks why your chat bot needs to avoid certain offensive phrases because, "our clientele aren't a bunch of racists", you can just point him to this story. The actual racists are tame by comparison to what trolls will do to your software. [0] = https://github.com/shutterstock/List-of-Dirty-Naughty-Obscene-and-Otherwise-Bad-Words https://github.com/shutterstock/List-of-Dirty-Naughty-Obscen...
nkristoffersen 11y ago
Now to be fair, we restrict what humans learn all the time. We try to teach morals and ethics to our children. We generally don't let kiddos run wild and learn whatever is around without some sort of structure.