4 ms·

I so wish people would stop abusing the term AI. This is an application that employs heuristics upon scanned data and then executes events. By that definition

I so wish people would stop abusing the term AI. This is an application that employs heuristics upon scanned data and then executes events. By that definition half of everything written in JavaScript is AI.

bdod6 9y ago
They are using AI for natural language processing though. Heuristics would be if they just scanned a post for keywords or waiting for a suicide reporting. The article suggests they are using reporting as labeled training data, and eventually they'll be able to detect posts/videos that indicate suicide. I agree that AI term gets thrown around a lot these days but don't think that's what is happening here.
- austincheney 9y ago
  > They are using AI for natural language processing though I am not sure how that, by itself, qualifies as AI. It is a dedicated NLP application doing the one job it was designed to do. In my idea of AI, the machine would have to learn from prior mistakes without the developers doing that learning for it. Also, for what its worth, in the real world to qualify suicidal thoughts you have to ask a person directly if they have any thoughts of harming themselves or others while aggressively watching their body language to force a more honest response during emotional pressure. Scanning user submitted text would not qualify as suicidal behavior until the user mentions self-harm.
DonHopkins 9y ago
The game industry has already been abusing the term AI beyond all recognition for a long time. You have a point about how by that definition, half of everything written in JavaScript is AI. Have you taken a look at the source for jQuery? Good grief, it's like an expert system chock full of heuristics for sniffing and manipulating the DOM and handling and dispatching events in so many different incompatible browsers. And then there's Gnu autoconf...

4 ms·

I so wish people would stop abusing the term AI. This is an application that employs heuristics upon scanned data and then executes events. By that definition

by austincheney 9y ago

bdod6 9y ago
They are using AI for natural language processing though. Heuristics would be if they just scanned a post for keywords or waiting for a suicide reporting. The article suggests they are using reporting as labeled training data, and eventually they'll be able to detect posts/videos that indicate suicide. I agree that AI term gets thrown around a lot these days but don't think that's what is happening here.
- austincheney 9y ago
  > They are using AI for natural language processing though I am not sure how that, by itself, qualifies as AI. It is a dedicated NLP application doing the one job it was designed to do. In my idea of AI, the machine would have to learn from prior mistakes without the developers doing that learning for it. Also, for what its worth, in the real world to qualify suicidal thoughts you have to ask a person directly if they have any thoughts of harming themselves or others while aggressively watching their body language to force a more honest response during emotional pressure. Scanning user submitted text would not qualify as suicidal behavior until the user mentions self-harm.
DonHopkins 9y ago
The game industry has already been abusing the term AI beyond all recognition for a long time. You have a point about how by that definition, half of everything written in JavaScript is AI. Have you taken a look at the source for jQuery? Good grief, it's like an expert system chock full of heuristics for sniffing and manipulating the DOM and handling and dispatching events in so many different incompatible browsers. And then there's Gnu autoconf...