Google says its robots are better than humans at spotting extremist YouTube videos

The Telegraph ^ | 8/1/17 | Cara McGoogan

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Google has insisted that its robots are now superior to humans at identifying and blocking extremist videos, saying that they flag three in four offensive videos from YouTube before they are reported by users.

[Google] more than doubled the number of illegal videos deleted from its platform last month after it adopted artificial intelligence moderators to help police content.

"With over 400 hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute, finding and taking action on violent extremist content poses a significant challenge. But over the past month, our initial use of machine learning has more than doubled both the number of videos we've removed for violent extremism, as well as the rate at which we’ve taken this kind of content down."

...the AI, which can spot offensive content before human users flag it, identified more than 75 per cent of videos removed from YouTube last month. The company said the robot's ability to spot illegal content has "improved dramatically" and that it is now more accurate than humans at flagging videos.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

This doesn't bode well for the free exchange of information.

The article states "If we [Google] find that these videos don’t violate our policies but contain controversial religious or supremacist content, they will be placed in a limited state."

If their AI filtered out all islamist material, I'd be happy. But "controversial religious or supremacist content" most likely means 1) Christianity and 2) Conservative thought and discourse.

[I want the USA back]

They are not better than humans. The “robots” are programs that run all the time! There is no human who devotes all his/her/its time to finding offensive videos. So of f*cking course, the bleeding “robots” are going to do a better job than humans.

[Riley]

Bingo.

[spintreebob]

Note how they progress on the slipper slope from extremist content to violent extremist content. Anarcho Capitalists, Amish, Alt-Right could all be labeled extremists. But they are not violent.

Palestinian Terrorists are supported by a majority of UN delegates. So, by definition they are not extremists.

A big mistake is made by not clarifying the difference between those two types of people and groups of people.

Yes, there is overlap between the two groups. But there is also overlap between male and each of those groups, and between many other factors.

[Buckeye McFrog]

"If we [Google] find that these videos don’t violate our policies but contain controversial religious or supremacist content, they will be placed in a limited state."

As was done to Dennis Prager and some of his content from Prager University. You know Dennis, a real whacko extremist guy. /s

[Buckeye McFrog]

I guess this is why Steve Bannon wants them regulated as a public utility.

[neverevergiveup]

What ‘rules’ have they programmed their bots to use? Something like: illegal alien = extreme, islamic terrorist = extreme, MAGA = extreme, etc.

[cgbg]

It will not be long before they program their AI with key words—not “bad” key words but a list of MSM talking points.

If the talking points are not regurgitated then it must be extremist content!

[setha]

Their AI is automated narrative enforcement trained to be politically correct.

[PGR88]

What is the alternative to youtube?

[moovova]

Old, white guys, too.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Speaking of the "hateful" Dennis Praeger, did you see this today?

Dennis Prager Called Bigot by Leftists Who Want His Guest Conductor Gig Stopped

It is really worth reading the entire original article he wrote. Leftists aren't content to stop speech on campus. Two lefty profs want to prevent this "hateful bigot" from conducting an orchestra in LA!

[ilovesarah2012]

I saw an article today about human-looking robots. All I have ever seen are white. Are there any black robots?

[bmwcyle]

Anti-Trust the hell out of Google.

[MeganC]

This doesn’t bode well for the future of You Tube. If they’re going to censor conservative speech then conservatives will need to go elsewhere.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Black robots? Plenty of them. But they are sure mean looking...

[ilovesarah2012]

They’ll be whining once they realize it.

[rx]

conservatives will need to go elsewhere

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS!

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

“Violent” extremist videos from...which side of the coin? I’m thinking that not many Loony Lefty/BLM/Antifa/Occupy/Anti-Trump/Muslim videos are getting blocked.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

I'm not one inclined to seek regulation or greater government intrusion into our lives, but on this issue, I'm with Bannon. While there is this great brouhaha in the press about "foreign influence on our elections", how about a little attention to domestic influence, outside of that which is regulated (campaign contributions), which is very influential and not at all visible to the public? As in Google's search algorithm, which may have been altered to emphasize negative information about Trump and de-emphasize negative information about Hillary in the 2016 campaign. Google executives can contribute to candidates campaigns, subject to the limits all he rest of us face. They can contribute to PAC's without limits. But Google itself, or Alphabet, cannot as a corporation contribute to a candidate's campaign. That has been prohibited since the aftermath of Watergate in the 1970's. But what about some hidden, minor tweak to the search algorithm, which would have great impact on the public debate, but would not be reflected in the archaic regulatory process we have for campaign contributions?

This is what needs a special counsel.