{"id":90073,"date":"2017-11-29T09:28:33","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T13:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=90073"},"modified":"2017-11-29T09:37:22","modified_gmt":"2017-11-29T13:37:22","slug":"facebook-using-a-i-in-highly-dubious-ways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=90073","title":{"rendered":"Facebook Using A.I. in Highly Dubious Ways"},"content":{"rendered":"

Facebook Announces It Will Use A.I. To Scan Your Thoughts “To Enhance User Safety”<\/h1>\n

ZeroHedge.com<\/p>\n

A mere few years ago the idea that artificial intelligence (AI) might be used to analyze and report to law enforcement aberrant human behavior on social media and other online platforms was merely the far out premise of dystopian movies such as Minority Report,\u00a0but now Facebook proudly brags that\u00a0it will use AI to “save lives” based on behavior and thought pattern recognition.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

What could go wrong?<\/p>\n

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The latest puff piece in\u00a0Tech Crunch<\/a>\u00a0profiling the apparently innocuous sounding “roll out” of AI (as if a mere modest software update) “to detect suicidal posts before they’re reported” opens with the glowingly optimistic line, “This is software to save lives” – so who could possibly doubt such a wonderful and benign initiative which involves AI evaluating people’s mental health? Tech Crunch’s\u00a0Josh Cronstine begins<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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This is software to save lives.\u00a0Facebook\u2019s new \u201cproactive detection\u201d\u00a0artificial intelligence technology will scan all posts for patterns of suicidal thoughts,\u00a0<\/strong>and when necessary send mental health resources to the user at risk or their friends, or contact local first-responders. By using AI to flag worrisome posts to human moderators instead of waiting for user reports, Facebook can decrease how long it takes to send help.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

CEO Mark Zuckerberg has long hinted that his team has been wrestling with ways to prevent what appears to be a disturbingly increased trend of live streamed suicides as well as the much larger social problem of online bullying and harassment. One recent example which gained international media attention was a bizarre incident out of Turkey, where a\u00a0distraught father shot himself on Facebook Live<\/a>\u00a0after announcing that his daughter was getting married without his permission. Though\u00a0the example actually demonstrates the endlessly complex and unforeseen variables involved in human decision making and the human\u00a0psyche<\/strong>\u00a0– in this case notions of rigid Middle East cultural taboos and stigma clearly played a part – Tech Crunch holds it up as something which AI could possibly prevent.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year Zuckerberg\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0in a public post that \u201cThere have been terribly tragic events – like suicides, some live streamed – that perhaps could have been prevented if someone had realized what was happening and reported them sooner…\u00a0Artificial intelligence can help provide a better approach.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0And\u00a0in a post yesterday announcing the new AI suicide prevention tool integration,\u00a0he wrote that<\/a>\u00a0\u201cIn the future, AI will be able to understand more of the subtle nuances of language,\u00a0and will be able to identify different issues beyond suicide as well<\/strong>, including quickly spotting more kinds of bullying and hate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naturally, we must ask: what does Mark mean by the eerily ambiguous reference to\u00a0“we<\/strong>\u00a0will be able to identify\u00a0different issues beyond suicide as well<\/em>..”<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

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It begins. Facebook rolls out its first AI powered thought crime module. https:\/\/t.co\/g0aQB9Odo6<\/a><\/p>\n

— Defend Assange Campaign (@DefendAssange) November 28, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n