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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Google has recently used humans and machine learning to review YouTube videos in a quest to label offensive content, and has found that the software does better "in many cases" [theguardian.com]:

Google has pledged to continue developing advanced programs using machine learning to combat the rise of extremist content, after it found that it was both faster and more accurate than humans in scrubbing illicit content from YouTube.

The company is using machine learning along with human reviewers as part of a mutli-pronged approach to tackle the spread of extremist and controversial videos across YouTube, which also includes tougher standards for videos and the recruitment of more experts to flag content in need of review.

A month after announcing the changes [theguardian.com], and following UK home secretary Amber Rudd's repeated calls [theguardian.com] for US technology firms to do more to tackle the rise of extremist content, Google's YouTube has said that its machine learning systems have already made great leaps in tackling the problem.

A YouTube spokesperson said: "While these tools aren't perfect, and aren't right for every setting, in many cases our systems have proven more accurate than humans at flagging videos that need to be removed.

Controversial, offensive, hateful, violent content that does not obviously breach YouTube's guidelines will be allowed to remain, but will often be demonetized as well as de-emphasized [androidheadlines.com] by not being recommended/suggested, making such videos much harder to find. Comment sections and likes may also be disabled for these videos.

YouTube will also suggest curated playlists for certain keywords, because anti-terrorism propaganda artificially propped up by a megacorporation is definitely going to dissuade and not alienate budding terrorists. Maybe the new online jihad will be fought in the comment sections of the curated videos. Better disable the comment sections on those ones too.

Previously: Google Fails to Stop Major Brands From Pulling Ads From YouTube [soylentnews.org]
YouTube Changes its Partner Program -- Channels Need 10k Views for Adverts [soylentnews.org]
Google Taking New Steps to Fight Terror Online [soylentnews.org]

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