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Facebook deploys AI for early signs of suicide

techcrunch.com

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Re: Facebook deploys AI for early signs of suicide

#111

Post by timthelion »

erasemus wrote: post #64
asdgkknio wrote: post #15

This may or may not be a useful technology, but the fact that Facebook thinks they have the ability and the right to diagnose their users with mental illnesses is disturbing. They have more information about their users than psychologists have about their patients. They can (and do) build a psychological profile and diagnose mental illness. Yet rather than keeping this information in the closest confidence, they sell…

I'm worried there's a taboo developing where only professionals or mentally ill people themselves are allowed to express any kind of opinion about mental illness or the mentally ill.

I'm worried that the field of psychology is gaining a monopoly on expression of feelings. We can no longer express happiness and sadness, anxiety and frustration, without being "diagnosed" in a horoscopic manner which has little or nothing to do with science and bears a great deal of stigma.

The psychological disorders of today are the occult of yesterday. We believe that one can become possessed by depression or anxiety. Possessed by psychosis, possessed by a personality disorder, possessed by PTSD, possessed by a history of child abuse. And we have to call upon the psychologists to preform an exorcism.

Re: Facebook deploys AI for early signs of suicide

#112

Post by stuffedBelly »

P.S. I live with depression and have been recovering over the years.

I really want this to work but I am afraid this Facebook AI based on posts will miss a big portion of people with suicidal thoughts.

First of all, many who are depressed do not like to share and that is why first step of counseling is usually to make the patients open up and talk, not to mention posting on Facebook about their feelings

Secondly, often times suicidal thoughts appear suddenly, making it tougher to detect preemptively. The best way to prevent suicide is for people to be there with the subject instead of messaging/calling. There are physical traits (anxiety, abnormal silence/talkativeness, etc) that can be easily spotted in person. Therefore constant visits is better than relying on Facebook AI.

All in all, I don't think AI is needed for suicide prevention. All Facebook really needs to do is to put, in a user's profile page, a visible "counseling" section providing immediate info about the suicide hotline and nearby counseling/therapy centers. But that wouldn't be as a big of a selling point as "AI for early signs of suicide", would it? If everyone knows the suicide prevention hotline just like they know 911, it would have prevented lots of suicide already.

Re: Facebook deploys AI for early signs of suicide

#113

Post by asdgkknio »

flashman wrote: post #100
asdgkknio wrote: post #15

This may or may not be a useful technology, but the fact that Facebook thinks they have the ability and the right to diagnose their users with mental illnesses is disturbing. They have more information about their users than psychologists have about their patients. They can (and do) build a psychological profile and diagnose mental illness. Yet rather than keeping this information in the closest confidence, they sell…

> Facebook thinks they have the ability and the right to diagnose their users with mental illnesses Maybe it's more that Facebook thinks it's horrible when people kill themselves, and that if Facebook's tech could help prevent suicide, inaction would be immoral. Most of us accept some level of State interference in our lives for our own good. Maybe we are going to have to have that discussion about involuntary interv…

>Maybe it's more that Facebook thinks it's horrible when people kill themselves, and that if Facebook's tech could help prevent suicide, inaction would be immoral.

That doesn't entirely contradict what I said. We generally assume psychologists and therapists are benevolent, but they aren't allowed to disclose private information even if it's in the best interests of the patient. Even if we assume Facebook is perfectly benevolent, this kind of vigilante psychology with no oversight is scary. They've thrown out all established codes of ethics in favor of just doing whatever the hell they want.

And I'm certain Facebook isn't benevolent. They deliberately make their website as addictive as possible. They have run experiments that tried to make people unhappy. If this really is a selfless attempt to help their users, it's inconsistent with what Facebook has done before.

Re: Facebook deploys AI for early signs of suicide

#114

Post by leggomylibro »

zkms wrote: post #92

> Over the past month of testing, Facebook has initiated more than 100 “wellness checks” with first-responders visiting affected users. “There have been cases where the first-responder has arrived and the person is still broadcasting.” It's important to note here that "first-responder" here means police; because suicide tends to either be a crime, or something for which police can legally take you into custody for. R…

Just wait for facebook to deploy AI for early signs of other things like dissent, political leanings, borderline stances on important issues, inebriation/likelihood to make impulse buys, etc.

Re: Facebook deploys AI for early signs of suicide

#115

Post by threatofrain »

asdgkknio wrote: post #15

This may or may not be a useful technology, but the fact that Facebook thinks they have the ability and the right to diagnose their users with mental illnesses is disturbing. They have more information about their users than psychologists have about their patients. They can (and do) build a psychological profile and diagnose mental illness. Yet rather than keeping this information in the closest confidence, they sell…

I'd be curious if they were entertaining adverse hypotheses on mental health!

Re: Facebook deploys AI for early signs of suicide

#116

Post by jacquesm »

ProAm wrote: post #72
asdgkknio wrote: post #15

This may or may not be a useful technology, but the fact that Facebook thinks they have the ability and the right to diagnose their users with mental illnesses is disturbing. They have more information about their users than psychologists have about their patients. They can (and do) build a psychological profile and diagnose mental illness. Yet rather than keeping this information in the closest confidence, they sell…

Great points, I wonder if FB actually employees psychologists and if so how many and what are their accreditations and level of professional experience.

Yes they do. Main mission: to make Facebook as sticky as possible.

Re: Facebook deploys AI for early signs of suicide

#117

Post by drewmol »

asdgkknio wrote: post #15

This may or may not be a useful technology, but the fact that Facebook thinks they have the ability and the right to diagnose their users with mental illnesses is disturbing. They have more information about their users than psychologists have about their patients. They can (and do) build a psychological profile and diagnose mental illness. Yet rather than keeping this information in the closest confidence, they sell…

By the way they elevate moderation priority for posts and FB Live, I pessimisticly assume their primary concern is to prevent people from committing suicide ON Facebook Live, which is much worse for Facebook than simply loosing users

Re: Facebook deploys AI for early signs of suicide

#119

Post by togg »

asdgkknio wrote: post #15

This may or may not be a useful technology, but the fact that Facebook thinks they have the ability and the right to diagnose their users with mental illnesses is disturbing. They have more information about their users than psychologists have about their patients. They can (and do) build a psychological profile and diagnose mental illness. Yet rather than keeping this information in the closest confidence, they sell…

Well if they don't have enough information to reach a diagnosis they can always head to the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.

Re: Facebook deploys AI for early signs of suicide

#120

Post by lostlogin »

rdtsc wrote: post #90
asdgkknio wrote: post #15

This may or may not be a useful technology, but the fact that Facebook thinks they have the ability and the right to diagnose their users with mental illnesses is disturbing. They have more information about their users than psychologists have about their patients. They can (and do) build a psychological profile and diagnose mental illness. Yet rather than keeping this information in the closest confidence, they sell…

Even more, we've seen articles which pointed out how using Facebook makes people more depressed and doesn't help with isolation, and loneliness. So in a terribly ironic way, Facebook is making them depressed, but then it doesn't want to them to die because there's nobody left to lick the "Like" button, so it deploys AI doctors to diagnose and prevent suicide from happening.

I get sick of screen touchers on a shared machine I use. This comment made me cringe.
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