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"Facebook understands the emotions expressed in what you type as statuses, and in messages via Messenger or WhatsApp." Is this correct? There was a very involv

"Facebook understands the emotions expressed in what you type as statuses, and in messages via Messenger or WhatsApp." Is this correct? There was a very involved discussion about WhatsApp's encryption that I thought indicated they don't, in fact, have access to WhatsApp messages.

sigzero 10y ago
It is impossible for FB to understand that.
Y_Y 10y ago
Unless Facebook has some sentiment analysis tech that's far better than academia's (which isn't that unlikely), "understanding the emotions" of statuses is still a long way off.
throwawaysed 10y ago
they could bake a pre-trained CNN into the messenger pretty easily and run it locally... so plausible
TruthHawk 10y ago
Author here - you're right. I've made an edit accordingly. Thanks!
nickbauman 10y ago
Facebook likely has a watson-like technology that can answer a lot of interesting questions about a user, but "understanding emotions"... that's still a ways off. Maybe a long long way off. But it's wrong not to be very, very concerned. Suffice it to say: (Paraphrasing Dijkstra) Whether Facebook understands human emotions from text is as relevant a question as whether a submarine can swim. I think they can get a helluva lot out of what you're typing and what you're liking. That should be enough to worry about.
rimliu 10y ago
Wasn't there a case of FB doing some kind or research where they tried to influence the mood of the users by manipulating what content they see?
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
olleromam91 10y ago
"Understanding" emotion is definitely a biological trait that computers are unlikely (maybe 2200) to ever be capable of replicating. But lexical content is a very well understood field, and emotion recognition is a huge industry for advertising. Even if facebook doesn't know that "I like it when stan fingers my butthole" was just a joke between buddies... there is tone inferred from the words and grammar involved. Positive vs. Negative is relatively straightforward, and when associated with a topic... can lead to lots of "opinion" data.

sigzero 10y ago

It is impossible for FB to understand that.

Y_Y 10y ago

Unless Facebook has some sentiment analysis tech that's far better than academia's (which isn't that unlikely), "understanding the emotions" of statuses is still a long way off.

throwawaysed 10y ago

they could bake a pre-trained CNN into the messenger pretty easily and run it locally... so plausible

TruthHawk 10y ago

Author here - you're right. I've made an edit accordingly. Thanks!

nickbauman 10y ago

Facebook likely has a watson-like technology that can answer a lot of interesting questions about a user, but "understanding emotions"... that's still a ways off. Maybe a long long way off. But it's wrong not to be very, very concerned. Suffice it to say: (Paraphrasing Dijkstra) Whether Facebook understands human emotions from text is as relevant a question as whether a submarine can swim. I think they can get a helluva lot out of what you're typing and what you're liking. That should be enough to worry about.

rimliu 10y ago

Wasn't there a case of FB doing some kind or research where they tried to influence the mood of the users by manipulating what content they see?

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

olleromam91 10y ago

"Understanding" emotion is definitely a biological trait that computers are unlikely (maybe 2200) to ever be capable of replicating. But lexical content is a very well understood field, and emotion recognition is a huge industry for advertising. Even if facebook doesn't know that "I like it when stan fingers my butthole" was just a joke between buddies... there is tone inferred from the words and grammar involved. Positive vs. Negative is relatively straightforward, and when associated with a topic... can lead to lots of "opinion" data.