Google’s AI-powered ‘inclusive warnings’ feature is very broken • Hacker News Board

Re: Google’s AI-powered ‘inclusive warnings’ feature is very broken

#201

Post by golergka » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 5:14 PM UTC

hedora wrote: post #190

knorker wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only that, but there are more than three times as many slaves TODAY as ever were in the transatlantic slave trade that is the only one the US knows exists.

There are more slaves added each year in the US today than at the peak of transatlantic trade: https://www.britannica.com/summary/Transatlantic-Slave-Trade... Peak transatlantic: 78,000 new slaves per year. https://thecurrentmsu.com/2021/01/24/prison-labor-americas-s... Current US forced prison labor population: 1-2.1 million.

You may not like the US prison system, but calling it slavery is at the very least intellectually dishonest.

Re: Google’s AI-powered ‘inclusive warnings’ feature is very broken

#202

Post by dylan604 » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 5:14 PM UTC

gdulli wrote: post #29

I spent many years in the bluest corner of a very blue state. But still I can't imagine any objection to the word "landlord" outside of (1) a right wing attempt to satirize the left, (2) a Google product brainstorming meeting, or (3) a rare sincere outlier or concern troll. In any of those cases I don't think this is necessary. That said, if the word "landlord" organically fell out of favor and out of usage to be rep…

What if your 3) was in 2) pushing 1) only it backfired and people in 2) took it seriously?

Re: Google’s AI-powered ‘inclusive warnings’ feature is very broken

#203

Post by azth » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 5:14 PM UTC

user3939382 wrote: post #108

mgraczyk wrote: post #9

In the article they use the example of "Motherboard" and "Landlord" and seem to suggest that these are areas where the Google AI is making mistakes or being overly strict. As a Google employee expressing my own opinion and observations of company culture, I can say that these are 100% not mistakes. Many Google employees are just so out of touch with the real world that they believe it is the duty of Google Docs to ch…

If we're going to play this game, I think dissuading people from using "mother" in the example of "motherboard" is offensive. Mothers are the source of human life on earth, and in that capacity are revered and honored. When we say motherboard, we're making an analogy that suggests the board's significance and universal connection to everything. To discourage the term as an analogy for things that are a universal sour…

It's the natural outcome of far leftist ideologies. People need to wake up and start rejecting this destructive ideology where a person is evaluated only based on their identity. I think MLK had something to say about that.

Re: Google’s AI-powered ‘inclusive warnings’ feature is very broken

#204

Post by vimy » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 5:14 PM UTC

mgraczyk wrote: post #9

In the article they use the example of "Motherboard" and "Landlord" and seem to suggest that these are areas where the Google AI is making mistakes or being overly strict. As a Google employee expressing my own opinion and observations of company culture, I can say that these are 100% not mistakes. Many Google employees are just so out of touch with the real world that they believe it is the duty of Google Docs to ch…

This is why I’m pessimistic about the West winning the second cold war. While Chinese engineers are working hard on world dominating AI models and other hard tech, Western engineers are wasting man hours on crap like this.

Re: Google’s AI-powered ‘inclusive warnings’ feature is very broken

#205

Post by she46BiOmUerPVj » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 5:14 PM UTC

mgraczyk wrote: post #9

In the article they use the example of "Motherboard" and "Landlord" and seem to suggest that these are areas where the Google AI is making mistakes or being overly strict. As a Google employee expressing my own opinion and observations of company culture, I can say that these are 100% not mistakes. Many Google employees are just so out of touch with the real world that they believe it is the duty of Google Docs to ch…

This sounds entirely fabricated. I've been in the hardware department for more than 10 years. Maybe you put a word in a list. I've never even heard of someone considering this.

Re: Google’s AI-powered ‘inclusive warnings’ feature is very broken

#206

Post by buro9 » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 5:14 PM UTC

Somewhere I wonder if people have read too much of Orwell's 1984 and Iain M. Banks Culture series and have decided that between Newspeak and Marain is an idea that whilst we may not better the world today, if we can obliterate language we can obliterate an idea.

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis put to use as a tool to ensure that future generations of humans will avoid the problems that have plagued us for all time, because the ideas that perpetuate those issues will have been eradicated.

I'm left in awe at the audacity of it, the idea that human nature itself can be changed just by striking out words from the language. Seems implausibly naive and paternalistic.

Re: Google’s AI-powered ‘inclusive warnings’ feature is very broken

#207

Post by newjersey » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 5:15 PM UTC

dotnet00 wrote: post #163

nebulous_two wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put yourself in the shoes of your average content moderator. Aren't they there for the paycheck like most people at their jobs? Why does everyone assume these people are first and foremost bastions of acceptable behaviour? They are instructed by executives as to how to do their jobs. Now executives are learning nuance and say "oh there's more to this than you thought, so here's the updated guidelines to follow now",…

I think the point you're missing is that often moderators are in that position because they specifically want the power that comes with it. We see this all the time with volunteer moderators getting high on their power, pushing through whatever agenda they have regardless of user opinion. I think those types of people are even more likely to end up as paid content moderators, since the work tends to be too tedious fo…

» I think the point you're missing is that often moderators are in that position because they specifically want the power that comes with it.

I love that you were courageous enough to say this because this is completely true and also why we say #ACAB. Most people who want to be police officers are absolutely unfit to be police officers!

Re: Google’s AI-powered ‘inclusive warnings’ feature is very broken

#208

Post by she46BiOmUerPVj » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 5:15 PM UTC

______-_-______ wrote: post #90

mgraczyk wrote: post #9

In the article they use the example of "Motherboard" and "Landlord" and seem to suggest that these are areas where the Google AI is making mistakes or being overly strict. As a Google employee expressing my own opinion and observations of company culture, I can say that these are 100% not mistakes. Many Google employees are just so out of touch with the real world that they believe it is the duty of Google Docs to ch…

"Motherboard" is particularly unbelievable. The motherboard runs the machine. It's a woman in a position of power. Isn't that what everyone says they want? Or is the idea to just erase the very concept of gender from the world? Welcome to OkCupid, I am a [PERSON] seeking [PERSON] I want out of this timeline

It's particularly unbelievable because it's particularly false.

Re: Google’s AI-powered ‘inclusive warnings’ feature is very broken

#209

Post by lm28469 » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 5:15 PM UTC

ElFitz wrote: post #62

And now the rest of the world will be very happy learn that they will once more have to silently deal with the aftermath of America’s latest political trend. After banning world-famous paintings from Facebook because they dared show a breast, a few well-off engineers and product managers will now pick which English words should remain, and which should be let go. How nice of them. Don’t know what we’d do without them…

Yeah but they have absolute freedom of speech so they're better than us /s

Re: Google’s AI-powered ‘inclusive warnings’ feature is very broken

#210

Post by skrbjc » Fri, Apr 22, 2022, 5:15 PM UTC

user3939382 wrote: post #108

mgraczyk wrote: post #9

In the article they use the example of "Motherboard" and "Landlord" and seem to suggest that these are areas where the Google AI is making mistakes or being overly strict. As a Google employee expressing my own opinion and observations of company culture, I can say that these are 100% not mistakes. Many Google employees are just so out of touch with the real world that they believe it is the duty of Google Docs to ch…

If we're going to play this game, I think dissuading people from using "mother" in the example of "motherboard" is offensive. Mothers are the source of human life on earth, and in that capacity are revered and honored. When we say motherboard, we're making an analogy that suggests the board's significance and universal connection to everything. To discourage the term as an analogy for things that are a universal sour…

But that's implying that only mothers give birth, and erases those who don't identify as mothers who give birth.

That's how I understand their thinking, at least.

I agree with you and think anyone who is offended by motherboard is silly. I'm sure it was never even anyone that was actually offended, but a group of people sitting down and looking at any and every word that has any type of gender connotation and saying that's a bad thing.