Learning from Tay’s introduction • Hacker News Board

Re: Learning from Tay’s introduction

#71

Post by calebegg » Fri, Mar 25, 2016, 9:19 PM UTC

cb18 wrote: post #59

flatline wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many of her tweets were pretty inflammatory, this response seems appropriate - not overdone, and concise, which is sometimes a stretch for large corporations like Microsoft. I agree that the bot was highly entertaining and met this criteria exceedingly well, but not for the reasons its creator intended. I do suspect there are some interesting AI applications actually going on behind the scenes, and would still be int…

This is an interesting story, because I imagine most people didn't even hear of it until after the thing had come and gone, and the thing sent something like xx,xxx tweets. And some of the tweets seem almost impossibly clever, well at least the Ted Cruz Zodiac killer one, that seemed to show a kind of multi-layered humor generation capability, unless it was just re-purposing some memes I'm unfamiliar with or somethin…

Not sure which tweet you're referring to as the 'Ted Cruz Zodiac killer one', but there is a meme going around where people assert that Ted Cruz is or might be the zodiac killer; it's a weird thing. I think it gained a lot of momentum when Public Policy Polling determined that 38% of Floridians believe it could be possible.

Re: Learning from Tay’s introduction

#72

Post by mindslight » Fri, Mar 25, 2016, 9:20 PM UTC

flatline wrote: post #29

webkike wrote: post #8

This reads like an apologee... But what is there to apologize for? They said that Tay was meant for entertainment, and I doubt that any wholesome varient would be a tenth of the hilarity of a neo-nazi sex crazed chat bot.

Many of her tweets were pretty inflammatory, this response seems appropriate - not overdone, and concise, which is sometimes a stretch for large corporations like Microsoft. I agree that the bot was highly entertaining and met this criteria exceedingly well, but not for the reasons its creator intended. I do suspect there are some interesting AI applications actually going on behind the scenes, and would still be int…

> Many of her tweets were pretty inflammatory

What, were people forced to print the tweets out on sandpaper and wipe their asses with them?

It's pretty fucked up that thought policing has gotten so entrenched into our psyche that it's "obvious" an experiment should be discontinued, apologized for, and be pondered as a priori irresponsible, all because it generated vulgar phrases!

Corporations have always been vulnerable to media-driven mob shenanigans, but we're qualitatively entering a new regime where any communication, no matter what the context, will be rapidly highlighted, isolated, and hung out as something offensive to some emergently-forming group of freelance complainers looking for their fifteen minutes.

Even HN has succumbed to this kindler, gentler phenomenon of speech restriction - I'm guessing my lead-in sentence will not be well received do to its overt vulgarity. Civility certainly has its place (especially as a default), but not when it confuses direct objectivity and permits out-of-touch groupthink to flourish. As hackers we should be cutting through to the core of things rather than sugar coating in verbal fashion to get past the filters of the voluntarily-lesser apes.

Re: Learning from Tay’s introduction

#73

Post by dogma1138 » Fri, Mar 25, 2016, 9:20 PM UTC

cb18 wrote: post #58

hacker42 wrote: post #20

> people exploited a vulnerability in Tay Which vulnerability are they talking about?

The 'vulnerability' of the program to respond to commands of the sort, hey tay, repeat this [inflammatory comment]

The vast majority of the responses weren't due to this which what makes Tay's responses actually quite amazing.

MSFT wanted to make a teenager AI and 4chan delivered.

Re: Learning from Tay’s introduction

#74

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Mar 25, 2016, 9:22 PM UTC

cb18 wrote: post #59

flatline wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many of her tweets were pretty inflammatory, this response seems appropriate - not overdone, and concise, which is sometimes a stretch for large corporations like Microsoft. I agree that the bot was highly entertaining and met this criteria exceedingly well, but not for the reasons its creator intended. I do suspect there are some interesting AI applications actually going on behind the scenes, and would still be int…

This is an interesting story, because I imagine most people didn't even hear of it until after the thing had come and gone, and the thing sent something like xx,xxx tweets. And some of the tweets seem almost impossibly clever, well at least the Ted Cruz Zodiac killer one, that seemed to show a kind of multi-layered humor generation capability, unless it was just re-purposing some memes I'm unfamiliar with or somethin…

[deleted]

Re: Learning from Tay’s introduction

#75

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Mar 25, 2016, 9:22 PM UTC

bliti wrote: post #13

This reads like science fiction: Learning from Somebot's introduction. Last week we deployed Somebot to $location. Our confidence in Somebot was high because we had thought about all likely scenarios in our comfortable offices. We are deeply sorry and assume the full responsibility from Somebot's actions. Moving forward we will make sure to include safeguards to reduce the amount of pain caused by Somebot's deploymen…

[deleted]

Re: Learning from Tay’s introduction

#76

Post by akhilcacharya » Fri, Mar 25, 2016, 9:22 PM UTC

cb18 wrote: post #59

flatline wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many of her tweets were pretty inflammatory, this response seems appropriate - not overdone, and concise, which is sometimes a stretch for large corporations like Microsoft. I agree that the bot was highly entertaining and met this criteria exceedingly well, but not for the reasons its creator intended. I do suspect there are some interesting AI applications actually going on behind the scenes, and would still be int…

This is an interesting story, because I imagine most people didn't even hear of it until after the thing had come and gone, and the thing sent something like xx,xxx tweets. And some of the tweets seem almost impossibly clever, well at least the Ted Cruz Zodiac killer one, that seemed to show a kind of multi-layered humor generation capability, unless it was just re-purposing some memes I'm unfamiliar with or somethin…

The Cruz joke was the most confusing - it seems original.

Re: Learning from Tay’s introduction

#77

Post by raould42 » Fri, Mar 25, 2016, 9:23 PM UTC

rmellow wrote: post #54

Morals are learned by social contact, and Tay did this very well. Sure, what our parents taught most of us makes its behaviour reprehensible in comparison. But Tay was, so to speak, 'raised' by people demonstrating vile ideas and this must be taken into account. Would you expect any less from a tortured animal? Many use this as an example of the dangers of developing AI. Sure it's dangerous, but so are dogs raised fo…

uh, dogs don't log in to the internet and launch the nuclear missiles?!

Re: Learning from Tay’s introduction

#78

Post by drewbug » Fri, Mar 25, 2016, 9:27 PM UTC

rmellow wrote: post #54

Morals are learned by social contact, and Tay did this very well. Sure, what our parents taught most of us makes its behaviour reprehensible in comparison. But Tay was, so to speak, 'raised' by people demonstrating vile ideas and this must be taken into account. Would you expect any less from a tortured animal? Many use this as an example of the dangers of developing AI. Sure it's dangerous, but so are dogs raised fo…

Lots of people argue against dog breeding.

Re: Learning from Tay’s introduction

#79

Post by jsonne » Fri, Mar 25, 2016, 9:29 PM UTC

PeCaN wrote: post #60

placeybordeaux wrote: post #23

This leads me to wonder if there is less effort put into trolling on the Chinese Internet. Does anyone with experience in both internets (weebo & twitter for instance) have anything to share? Also does anyone know of some good English language digests of what is happening on the Chinese Internet? I was really interested by brother orange when that happened, and only knew kind of late.

Chinese internet is as bad as the English one (plus a few funny expressions to avoid censorship—frequent use of certain puns for restricted subjects for example). My Chinese internet experience is largely relegated to the Chinese Dota community though, and Dota players in general tend to have a higher percentage of trolls. So my sample is probably biased.

>(plus a few funny expressions to avoid censorship—frequent use of certain puns for restricted subjects for example)

Interestingly this is true of the English internet too. 4chan trolls frequently come up with puns and things to side step moderator censorship on various platforms as well.

Re: Learning from Tay’s introduction

#80

Post by chaz72 » Fri, Mar 25, 2016, 9:32 PM UTC

user8341116 wrote: post #48

Bahahaahhahahahaha. O-our chatbot got taken advantage of! We were completely blind that this could possibly happen! But they're the worst of humanity, the people that found an exploit not the engineers who are incapable of implementing even simple safeguards!!

Sounds easy! So what does your plan to implement "simple safeguards" for a chatbot on Twitter look like?