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Facebook Increasingly Reliant on A.I. To Predict Suicide Risk
A year ago, Facebook started using artificial intelligence to scan people's accounts for danger signs of imminent self-harm.
[...] "To just give you a sense of how well the technology is working and rapidly improving ... in the last year we've had 3,500 reports," she says. That means AI monitoring is causing Facebook to contact emergency responders an average of about 10 times a day to check on someone — and that doesn't include Europe, where the system hasn't been deployed. (That number also doesn't include wellness checks that originate from people who report suspected suicidal behavior online.)
Davis says the AI works by monitoring not just what a person writes online, but also how his or her friends respond. For instance, if someone starts streaming a live video, the AI might pick up on the tone of people's replies.
[...] "Ever since they've introduced livestreaming on their platform, they've had a real problem with people livestreaming suicides," Marks says. "Facebook has a real interest in stopping that."
He isn't sure this AI system is the right solution, in part because Facebook has refused to share key data, such as the AI's accuracy rate. How many of those 3,500 "wellness checks" turned out to be actual emergencies? The company isn't saying.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 20 2018, @12:49PM (1 child)
I liked it better when social networks acted like simple bulletin boards.
Now they are controlling speech on their network and inserting their own propaganda.
And the latest innovation is moving beyond the confines of their website to interfere in your life in meatspace? WTF these things are out of control. I would say it’s time for some regulations, but the govt is too inept to get it right or do it in a timely manner. The only realistic way to fight it is to disengage. DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday November 20 2018, @02:49PM
The government doesn't want to regulate how Facebook manipulates and interferes with your real life.
The government wants to participate in it.
And foreign governments want to participate in it too.
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