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The fact that machine learning or statistical methods find that the word "asian" is so highly correlated with porn that it is basically synonymous enough to be

The fact that machine learning or statistical methods find that the word "asian" is so highly correlated with porn that it is basically synonymous enough to be blocked is a problem.

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alpaca128 6y ago
That is a problem, but with the algorithm or its flawed application. I don't think it's too far-fetched to expect one of the largest and richest tech companies worldwide to be able to tell with decent accuracy how the word "asian" was used. The sophistication of their blocking method is basically on par with a basic word filter that doesn't even attempt to avoid the Scunthorpe problem. I mean, we're not talking about reaching 99% accuracy or really advanced linguistic detection. When a company sells smart home voice assistants surely they can be expected to tell "asian food" from more lewd content apart. Keep a list of naughty websites, track what web searches regularly return those as result and then target those specific queries. Or throw some Machine Learning at it, might as well put their enthusiastically marketed AI processing unit to use. Accurate content filtering is hard. But completely blocking anything using one of the most common words in the language just because it frequently links to porn sites? Come on.
- porphyra 6y ago
  Yes, the algorithm is definitely inappropriate and too basic. However let's not overlook that it is a societal problem that a large amount of the US population does not care about Asians at all apart from porn. When there is 100x more searches for "asian hotties" than for "asian history", you can get 99% accuracy just by blacklisting the word "asian".
  - potatoman22 6y ago
    These claims seem pretty far fetched. Do you have any evidence that American's mostly only care about Asians because of porn, or that there are 100x more searches for Asian porn than other Asian topics? Seems pretty unreasonable to me
    - porphyra 6y ago
      The fact that Reddit's search algorithms and Apple's filters find a strong correlation between Asians and porn suggests that to be the case. The 100x was just a rhetorical example.
      - alpaca128 6y ago
        Your point about correlation with porn shows absolutely nothing. Every site hosting pornographic content finds a strong correlation between anything and porn. I literally just searched "foo" on Reddit with NSFW turned on and the results are 100% porn, ranging from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure to Foo Fighters related...content. Do people watch porn with asians? Yes, and also with about every second noun that appears in a dictionary. I highly doubt Apple's filters are applied in a fair way. Do they block queries containing gingers? Germans? Japanese? Which continents, ethnicities and countries does Apple find too sexy? I don't think a company should be in a position where this kind of question has to be asked.
        porphyra 6y ago
        What? Searching for "foo" had no porn results. "German" only had two porn results out of the top 50. "Asian" was almost all porn. I did all three searches with the same logged-in user with "show NSFW" enabled in the user settings. Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/bjtDEfG https://imgur.com/a/bjtDEfG
  - Rule35 6y ago
    > However let's not overlook that it is a societal problem that a large amount of the US population does not care about Asians at all apart from porn. Why is this a problem? The premise was hate, but now the goalposts have moved to indifference. Have you studied Romanian history or are they beneath you racially? Or, do you disagree with the premise of the question?

The fact that machine learning or statistical methods find that the word "asian" is so highly correlated with porn that it is basically synonymous enough to be blocked is a problem.

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alpaca128 6y ago

That is a problem, but with the algorithm or its flawed application. I don't think it's too far-fetched to expect one of the largest and richest tech companies worldwide to be able to tell with decent accuracy how the word "asian" was used. The sophistication of their blocking method is basically on par with a basic word filter that doesn't even attempt to avoid the Scunthorpe problem. I mean, we're not talking about reaching 99% accuracy or really advanced linguistic detection. When a company sells smart home voice assistants surely they can be expected to tell "asian food" from more lewd content apart. Keep a list of naughty websites, track what web searches regularly return those as result and then target those specific queries. Or throw some Machine Learning at it, might as well put their enthusiastically marketed AI processing unit to use. Accurate content filtering is hard. But completely blocking anything using one of the most common words in the language just because it frequently links to porn sites? Come on.

porphyra 6y ago
Yes, the algorithm is definitely inappropriate and too basic. However let's not overlook that it is a societal problem that a large amount of the US population does not care about Asians at all apart from porn. When there is 100x more searches for "asian hotties" than for "asian history", you can get 99% accuracy just by blacklisting the word "asian".
- potatoman22 6y ago
  These claims seem pretty far fetched. Do you have any evidence that American's mostly only care about Asians because of porn, or that there are 100x more searches for Asian porn than other Asian topics? Seems pretty unreasonable to me
  - porphyra 6y ago
    The fact that Reddit's search algorithms and Apple's filters find a strong correlation between Asians and porn suggests that to be the case. The 100x was just a rhetorical example.
    - alpaca128 6y ago
      Your point about correlation with porn shows absolutely nothing. Every site hosting pornographic content finds a strong correlation between anything and porn. I literally just searched "foo" on Reddit with NSFW turned on and the results are 100% porn, ranging from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure to Foo Fighters related...content. Do people watch porn with asians? Yes, and also with about every second noun that appears in a dictionary. I highly doubt Apple's filters are applied in a fair way. Do they block queries containing gingers? Germans? Japanese? Which continents, ethnicities and countries does Apple find too sexy? I don't think a company should be in a position where this kind of question has to be asked.
      - porphyra 6y ago
        What? Searching for "foo" had no porn results. "German" only had two porn results out of the top 50. "Asian" was almost all porn. I did all three searches with the same logged-in user with "show NSFW" enabled in the user settings. Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/bjtDEfG https://imgur.com/a/bjtDEfG
- Rule35 6y ago
  > However let's not overlook that it is a societal problem that a large amount of the US population does not care about Asians at all apart from porn. Why is this a problem? The premise was hate, but now the goalposts have moved to indifference. Have you studied Romanian history or are they beneath you racially? Or, do you disagree with the premise of the question?