Google Tackles Trolls With AI - Comments Page 1

Timing is everything--It's Banned Book Week!So here's the logical extension to banning books.
From Phil Kerby, former editor of the L.A. Times:
"Censorship is the strongest drive in human nature; sex is a weak second."

"Google, in contrast, intends to protect the small and weak from the enormous and powerful."

Can they really protect us from themselves?

In over sixty years of experience, I find that one cannot legislate love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentileness.

Censorship is worrisome. Ceding too much control to machines is, too. I never quite trust computer control (being a former programmer). The anonymity of the internet creates monsters and mobs out of milquetoasts. Perhaps remarks flagged as "troll-ish" should "out" the person trying to post it? If true identities were revealed, would people be more circumspect in what they write?

As soon as any government begins to "regulate" what even one of "its" citizens publically or privately says, that gubmint has overstepped its bounds. That entity is well on its way to establishing "thought" police. In America, governors, high-level executive branch cabinet secretaries, even elected and potential presidents have labeled entire segments of the population "terrorists" for their personally held and/or expressed beliefs which are contrary to their own. I know. My pocket Declaration of Independence and Constitution qualifies me as such. That I can still do so is somewhat miraculous AND self-incriminating. I wonder what would happen if they got wind of me praying in public and mentioning God?

While trolling is hateful behaviour, it's also mainly anonymous - these cowards know what would happen to them if caught in 'real life'. They don't have the courage to come out of their closets.

BTW, I wonder if you'll get trolled for publishing your article?
Keep up the great work!

Anonymous commentary is not free speech. "No one" cannot speak. Perhaps Google's "Conversation AI' should be written so that if the comment is hurtful then the writer is warned the comment will only be published if the writer provides his/her true identity. If the writer will not comply then the software could block publication.

George Orwell was prescient.

You don't suppose Google would view negative comments about Google as censorship worthy?

Does this mean if I, with justification, call somebody a troll I'm as guilty as them?

If the trolls are so numerous that you cannot use your social media, then, that is a problem. If their comments or threats, not their actions, frighten you, make you sick, or cause you to alter your daily behavior, you should not be on media or, for that matter, interacting with the public at large. When we allow words or even threats to terrorize us, when we quake and cower, that is sad. Trolls are cowards. They hide behind their anonymity and get off on fear. No censoring AI.
Let them write and post, then laugh at them. Do not take them seriously, let them show what fools they are.
We don't need or want big brother to stand up for us when only words are used, only when actions are taken against us that we cannot defend on our own.

let them wrie

There must be a line somewhere. A threat of rape is a criminal threat. Should go double for the threat of raping a child. This is the perfect example of something so egregiously abhorrent as to be unconscionable. Free speech DOES NOT protect this (this seems to have gotten lost somewhere in this discussion).

The ability to communicate anonymously is not a constitutional right. Google is not the "gummint" but it does have to obey the laws where it operates, otherwise it would be more powerful than governments. I think that outing trolls is the right idea- warn them, then, if they do it again- out them. As Louis Brandeis wrote: "Sunlight is the best of disinfectants."

Threats of harm deserve an active response beyond "outing", preferably from the police.

Insults, on the other hand, can be addressed by riposte. Huffington Post appends this comment to some articles about Donald Trump:
"Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S."

For example:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-rallies-troops-were-gonna-get-rid-of-that-crooked-woman_us_57ebd0bee4b082aad9b80ff2?section=&

Perhaps anti-trolling would work. Perhaps Google could append its opinion to trolls' comments: "Google deems this comment to be fatheaded and stupid. It is the work of a troll."

Come to think of it, does not Huffington Post's comment have characteristics of a troll?

The scariest part of this technology is the "AI". Humans initially program the basic set up. The problem is with the AI learning on its own from any and all sources and making illogical and irrational decisions then taking action. AI may not be able to distinguish between harmless and harmful. The other factor is, will this AI have the capabilities or can be programed to hack and infiltrate systems once it has learned how to do it?
Technology is a marvelous thing and is a great aid to humanity. But there is the dark side of humanity where it is used to wreak havoc and cause harm.

Never should any public interest guidelines be handed over to a non-elected group of bureaucrats which, in the case of the E.U., is nothing more than an enforcing authority to an organized financial crime syndicate. What I find perplexing in this censorship by AI is the instance I found my comments on Google+ published with a strike-through
the sentences unrelated to hate speech. Just a caption to a posted photograph has been given this treatment, for which I can't explain. And the anti-Semite issue is another false argument. The reverse is the problem. Many uppity pro-Jewish groups--call them Jewish supremacists-- love to lobby (read censor)against legitimate criticism and factual history that exposes Zionism. That 45 students at Berkeley can protest content to halt a class midway through semester based on this anti-Semite canard is outrageous. One thing is clear, Google cooperates with the government just as the other social media services do in providing and generating certain "profiles" of users.

Keep up the Good Work and thanks for the things you do for us!

Perhaps one simple way of stopping the vast majority of trolls would be for the social media groups to be more diligent in their acceptance of members. I.E. make it harder for people to set up false accounts by having stricter forms of identity. and only allowing true identities to be used instead of nicknames. It Seems to me that this one simple act would almost eliminate trolling, as one writer said most trolls are cowards who would be to scared to write what they do if they thought they could be identified.

Leslie C. With everything being hacked these days,handing out your identy particulars is a very bad idea.

Dave F It's simple really when you join you give your mobile number for verification, they then send a SMS that you have to confirm, along with a notice that you're linked to that phone No. and if reported for trolling a verification check against that phone number will be instigated.

I believe in free speech and the use of words we have used for life time which the EU stopped, these random words are different to the vile out-poring's of the Trolls and any new technology should be made able to quickly trace the Trolls and expose them, once Trolls know that they can be found and cannot rely on the cloak of secrecy, those nasty twisted individuals will live in the fear of repercussion and so will think twice before posting their hate.