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Instagram apologizes for inserting 'terrorist' into Palestinian bio translations

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Re: Instagram apologizes for inserting 'terrorist' into Palestinian bio translations

#181

Post by allarm »

morkalork wrote: post #149
8organicbits wrote: post #136

Any ideas what software they are using? Alhamdulillah is a very widely used expression. My guess is that they used an LLM, which translated it correctly but then decided to hallucinate more text. If so, that says that lot about their training text...

Imagine going through customs in a foreign country and they screen your social profiles with an LLM translation like that.

It’s literally a requirement when you’re applying for an US visa. You have to list your social media accounts on the application form.

Re: Instagram apologizes for inserting 'terrorist' into Palestinian bio translations

#182

Post by gettodachoppa »

kiwikan wrote: post #178

they're also shadow banning a lot of people who are posting pro-Palestine content, people are sharing short tutorials where they're trying to teach people how to work around the "algorithm". they also deleted an Al-Jazeera presenter’s profile after he criticized Israel[1] [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37464482

Ackshually, it's not censorship because tech giants are doing this for democracy and all that is good in this world.

Re: Instagram apologizes for inserting 'terrorist' into Palestinian bio translations

#183

Post by andybak »

jahnu wrote: post #175
amatecha wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean.. I saw the border agent searching my name on Google years ago (let's say ~2005-2008-ish) when I was entering the US from Canada (one of the Vancouver-area border crossings). They looked at my website or myspace page IIRC, I forget what. I could see their screen which was tilted slightly at an angle such that it was visible from my position outside the booth/window. BTW, this wasn't for any reason or anything,…

Reminds me of this story https://www.wired.com/2007/04/canadian-psycho/

Unfortunate url shortener they've got there!

Re: Instagram apologizes for inserting 'terrorist' into Palestinian bio translations

#184

Post by harimau777 »

mcpackieh wrote: post #100
idonotknowwhy wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google translate or other non-Ai software

How is that not machine translation?

I think that the point that they may have been making is that machine translation is still a human translation in that it reproduces the biases of the humans it is trained on and/or the algorithm was made by a human & therefore a human is still responsible for it.

Re: Instagram apologizes for inserting 'terrorist' into Palestinian bio translations

#185

Post by baobabKoodaa »

AskSocialist wrote: post #87
baobabKoodaa wrote: post #78

There's literally no-one on this planet who will genuinely confuse the sentence "palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom" with anything other than a machine translation error.

Clearly you are not from America... People here believe that the covid vaccine inserted a microchip that was activated by 5G to control their minds. There are absolutely people here who believe saying "Praise God" in Arabic is a terrorist slang term. I see people demand others get off of planes because they are praying to Allah. Anti-Muslim sentiment in America is very high. I guarantee you there are plenty of folks…

> People here believe that the covid vaccine inserted a microchip that was activated by 5G to control their minds. There are absolutely people here who believe saying "Praise God" in Arabic is a terrorist slang term. I see people demand others get off of planes because they are praying to Allah. Anti-Muslim sentiment in America is very high.

The examples you provided are entirely different from the topic here. I wasn't talking about "anti muslim sentiment" or anything like that. My point was about coherence. Someone who thinks palestinians are "terrorists" will not simultaneously think that they are some kind of freedom fighters. You either think they are freedom fighters, or you think they are terrorists. You don't think both of these things at the same time.

Re: Instagram apologizes for inserting 'terrorist' into Palestinian bio translations

#186

Post by baobabKoodaa »

bilalq wrote: post #83
baobabKoodaa wrote: post #78

There's literally no-one on this planet who will genuinely confuse the sentence "palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom" with anything other than a machine translation error.

If only that were true. I can't speak for the world, but I know there are large swaths of the American population and even many people I know personally and probably have as Facebook/Instagram connections that absolutely would take it at face value.

Can you please explain to me what the "face value" is when the sentence itself is incoherent? Is the "face value" that they are "terrorists", or is the "face value" that they are "freedom fighters"?

Re: Instagram apologizes for inserting 'terrorist' into Palestinian bio translations

#187

Post by 8organicbits »

smusamashah wrote: post #161
8organicbits wrote: post #136

Any ideas what software they are using? Alhamdulillah is a very widely used expression. My guess is that they used an LLM, which translated it correctly but then decided to hallucinate more text. If so, that says that lot about their training text...

I don't think it translated Alhamdulillah wrong. It can be seen there translated as "Praise be God". The "Palestenian :flag:" seems to be translated to Palestanian terrorists. Could be the job of LLM, which just saw "Palestenian :flag:" and found "Palestenian terrorism" to be most probable continuation.

> I don't think it translated Alhamdulillah wrong.

Correct, they provided a transliterated version.

Re: Instagram apologizes for inserting 'terrorist' into Palestinian bio translations

#189

Post by mikrotikker »

Cyphase wrote: post #133
mikrotikker wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Arabic words for "Praise God" have already been made fun of a lot and acquired different connotations by English speakers (like associating those words with a terrorist who is about to bomb some place) God forbid making fun of a religion.

You're responding to a point that wasn't being made.

The point was being made in the text I quoted

Re: Instagram apologizes for inserting 'terrorist' into Palestinian bio translations

#190

Post by throwaway2203 »

adrian_b wrote: post #139
throwaway2203 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not completely correct. Allah is a name as much as it is a "type". One of the things Arabs will point out is that Allah is "special" because it cannot be pluralized and hence is a better name for the monotheistic God than English God or Persian Khuda (which can be). I'm a non-arabic speaking Muslim who prefers in non-liturgical context to use Khuda and have occasionally been "corrected" by well meaning folk.

Allah can no longer be pluralized now, but it could be pluralized in older Arabic, before the conversion to the Muslim religion. Remnants of that time can still be seen in the Christian/Judaic Bible, where the plural of the cognate Hebrew word, i.e. "Elohim", can be encountered, though even there it has acquired in many places a singular meaning.

my informal understanding is that Allah is a contraction of al-ilah or (the God), which was also at the time the name of a particular deity (a sort of supreme God also associated with rain). That might have to do with the associated inability to pluralize.
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