Thursday, February 23, 2017

What If Technology Could Help Improve Conversations Online?

Are we all ready to have Google's Perspective API moderate forum discussions now? Apparently Google thinks so.  Far be it for me to say this is a stupid idea but the system flagged my "I retarded the timing 4 degrees" as 71% toxic. Buying a bag of apples at Dicks is 79% toxic.


Perspective is an API that makes it easier to host better conversations. The API uses machine learning models to score the perceived impact a comment might have on a conversation. Developers and publishers can use this score to give realtime feedback to commenters or help moderators do their job, or allow readers to more easily find relevant information, as illustrated in two experiments below. We’ll be releasing more machine learning models later in the year, but our first model identifies whether a comment could be perceived as “toxic" to a discussion.