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The Applied Machine Learning group at Facebook

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Re: The Applied Machine Learning group at Facebook

#21

Post by orthoganol »

6stringmerc wrote: post #14

Look, I get the investment in technology and desire to push the limits, but sometimes these kinds of articles reveal a type of hubris that doesn't sit well with me. > Facebook today cannot exist without AI. Every time you use Facebook or Instagram or Messenger, you may not realize it, but your experiences are being powered by AI. It's not a "strong statement" as much as it is belligerently arrogant to the point of mi…

>... metrics on how well the company has managed to reduce fake news

Or an arrogance in how they believe it's fine (if not their duty) to censor news stories, as they deem fit, almost as if people of voting age can't think for themselves.

Re: The Applied Machine Learning group at Facebook

#22

Post by eli_gottlieb »

orthoganol wrote: post #21
6stringmerc wrote: post #14

Look, I get the investment in technology and desire to push the limits, but sometimes these kinds of articles reveal a type of hubris that doesn't sit well with me. > Facebook today cannot exist without AI. Every time you use Facebook or Instagram or Messenger, you may not realize it, but your experiences are being powered by AI. It's not a "strong statement" as much as it is belligerently arrogant to the point of mi…

>... metrics on how well the company has managed to reduce fake news Or an arrogance in how they believe it's fine (if not their duty) to censor news stories, as they deem fit, almost as if people of voting age can't think for themselves.

Was it already "censorship" when Facebook didn't present me, a card-carrying socialist, with far-right websites in my feed? Or is it "censorship" when they start taking USUncut out of my feed because, frankly, its journalistic quality is crap?

Which one of these was censorship? Does Fox News have a right to show up in my feed, given that I very much don't want to see it?

Re: The Applied Machine Learning group at Facebook

#23

Post by orthoganol »

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #22
orthoganol wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>... metrics on how well the company has managed to reduce fake news Or an arrogance in how they believe it's fine (if not their duty) to censor news stories, as they deem fit, almost as if people of voting age can't think for themselves.

Was it already "censorship" when Facebook didn't present me, a card-carrying socialist, with far-right websites in my feed? Or is it "censorship" when they start taking USUncut out of my feed because, frankly, its journalistic quality is crap? Which one of these was censorship? Does Fox News have a right to show up in my feed, given that I very much don't want to see it?

A small group of people doesn't get to say what is true, and then impose it on everyone else, without being called arrogant, infantilizing of their own users, or simply pushing politics (which is not farfetched given their execs had such strong ties to one party last election). You should have the ability to curate your own feed even if by managing your friends, but the buck stops there.

Re: The Applied Machine Learning group at Facebook

#24

Post by neuronexmachina »

orthoganol wrote: post #21
6stringmerc wrote: post #14

Look, I get the investment in technology and desire to push the limits, but sometimes these kinds of articles reveal a type of hubris that doesn't sit well with me. > Facebook today cannot exist without AI. Every time you use Facebook or Instagram or Messenger, you may not realize it, but your experiences are being powered by AI. It's not a "strong statement" as much as it is belligerently arrogant to the point of mi…

>... metrics on how well the company has managed to reduce fake news Or an arrogance in how they believe it's fine (if not their duty) to censor news stories, as they deem fit, almost as if people of voting age can't think for themselves.

Judging by the number of people I see on my feed who share Onion articles without realizing they're satire, it's pretty clear that the ability of many to think for themselves is lacking.

Re: The Applied Machine Learning group at Facebook

#25

Post by xenity7 »

6stringmerc wrote: post #14

Look, I get the investment in technology and desire to push the limits, but sometimes these kinds of articles reveal a type of hubris that doesn't sit well with me. > Facebook today cannot exist without AI. Every time you use Facebook or Instagram or Messenger, you may not realize it, but your experiences are being powered by AI. It's not a "strong statement" as much as it is belligerently arrogant to the point of mi…

"Facebook is its Users. No amount of AI can sell advertising the way Users can. And, last time I checked, it's still the User clicking around and having experiences."

I think you might be over reacting to this language, I believe the intent of the original article was to say that "the current Facebook USER EXPERIENCE cannot exist without AI" - clearly there are other things (users, user engagement) that make up integral parts of Facebook. No one is saying the product is AI.

Re: The Applied Machine Learning group at Facebook

#26

Post by aanm1988 »

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #22
orthoganol wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>... metrics on how well the company has managed to reduce fake news Or an arrogance in how they believe it's fine (if not their duty) to censor news stories, as they deem fit, almost as if people of voting age can't think for themselves.

Was it already "censorship" when Facebook didn't present me, a card-carrying socialist, with far-right websites in my feed? Or is it "censorship" when they start taking USUncut out of my feed because, frankly, its journalistic quality is crap? Which one of these was censorship? Does Fox News have a right to show up in my feed, given that I very much don't want to see it?

This is exactly why the facebook feed and people getting news from it is such a problem. God forbid you see an alternative viewpoint.

Re: The Applied Machine Learning group at Facebook

#27

Post by aanm1988 »

orthoganol wrote: post #23
eli_gottlieb wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was it already "censorship" when Facebook didn't present me, a card-carrying socialist, with far-right websites in my feed? Or is it "censorship" when they start taking USUncut out of my feed because, frankly, its journalistic quality is crap? Which one of these was censorship? Does Fox News have a right to show up in my feed, given that I very much don't want to see it?

A small group of people doesn't get to say what is true, and then impose it on everyone else, without being called arrogant, infantilizing of their own users, or simply pushing politics (which is not farfetched given their execs had such strong ties to one party last election). You should have the ability to curate your own feed even if by managing your friends, but the buck stops there.

> A small group of people doesn't get to say what is true

The pope didn't endorse Donald Trump. That is objective fact. Yet that popped up on facebook.

Why shouldn't they censor that shit?

Re: The Applied Machine Learning group at Facebook

#28

Post by metaobject »

tomc1985 wrote: post #5

How topical -- it might even root out fake news! To say nothing of all the other plans Facebook has for it...

I used to really enjoy coming to HN for some good tech/hacker/software news and to get away from the near ubiquitous political bullshit on th web, but over the last few months this site has changed for the worse.

I've had different accounts over the years since the beginning of HN, following pg, rtm, arc, etc. and I've never seen it like this. Differing opinions are what make discussions interesting, but this whole "fake news" horseshit Trump is pushing is just pure garbage.

Re: The Applied Machine Learning group at Facebook

#29

Post by eli_gottlieb »

orthoganol wrote: post #23
eli_gottlieb wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was it already "censorship" when Facebook didn't present me, a card-carrying socialist, with far-right websites in my feed? Or is it "censorship" when they start taking USUncut out of my feed because, frankly, its journalistic quality is crap? Which one of these was censorship? Does Fox News have a right to show up in my feed, given that I very much don't want to see it?

A small group of people doesn't get to say what is true, and then impose it on everyone else, without being called arrogant, infantilizing of their own users, or simply pushing politics (which is not farfetched given their execs had such strong ties to one party last election). You should have the ability to curate your own feed even if by managing your friends, but the buck stops there.

While I would never say the Facebook staff are intellectual authority figures, I think that "a small group of people doesn't get to say what is true" is just plain false. A small group of people tell the rest of us what's true all the time. They're called domain experts.

>You should have the ability to curate your own feed even if by managing your friends, but the buck stops there.

The feed is generated by an algorithm designed to maximize the chance I click links from my feed. It has never been a rote concatenation of my Facebook friends' walls/timelines/whatever-they're-called-today.

That kind of concatenation and interleaving of content from my friends would be an improvement. It's just not what we ever had at any point. Facebook has not suddenly acquired a bias or agenda. It's been filter-bubbling everyone since forever, and now people have objected that some of what it feeds them in their own personal bubble is bullshit.

Re: The Applied Machine Learning group at Facebook

#30

Post by bonniemuffin »

NipunSingh wrote: post #11

A lot of the people featured in this story came from Microsoft. Folks at Microsoft/Facebook - any ideas as to why that is? Is it just that Microsoft is a huge and dominant institution in computing so probability wise a lot of people naturally would have backgrounds which came from Microsoft? Is it because Microsoft is (or were??) leaders in ML/AI and it is has recently become a FB focus area, so lots of hiring of Mic…

Microsoft has like 100,000+ employees, so it's possible that a non-negligible fraction of all tech employees have worked at MSFT at some point.
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