Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

IBM's Watson Gets a Swear Filter After Learning the Urban Dictionary

Posted by samzenpus on from the not-in-front-of-grandma dept.

redletterdave writes "IBM's super-computer Watson briefly went from smart to smart ass with the help of the Urban Dictionary. According to Eric Brown, an IBM research assistant, he and his 35-person team wanted to get Watson to sound more like a real human. After teaching IBM's super-computer the entire Urban Dictionary, however, Watson simply couldn't distinguish polite discourse from profanity. Watson unfortunately learned all of the Urban Dictionary's bad habits, including throwing in overly-crass language at random points in its responses; in answering one question, Watson even reportedly used the word 'bullshit' within an answer to one researcher's question. In the end, Brown and his team were forced to remove the Urban Dictionary from Watson's vocabulary, and additionally developed a smart filter to keep Watson from swearing in the future."

4 of 310 comments (clear)

  1. Re:That's a fucking retarded idea. by jhantin · · Score: 5, Informative

    Let him cuss.

    Knowing how to drop a precision F-strike at the appropriate time is one thing. Indiscriminately carpeting the place with cluster F-bombs is a waste of perfectly good shock ammunition.

    --
    ...when you're writing a game...tweak the difficulty of "Easy" to something [your mother] can cope with. -- onion2k
  2. Obligatory Simpsons Ref by sjbe · · Score: 5, Informative

    Do you want it to talk like a real person, or do you want it to use a swear filter?

    Sounds like they want it to talk like Ned Flanders.

  3. Re:That's a fucking retarded idea. by _Sharp'r_ · · Score: 3, Informative

    Funny.

    Too bad the story is that all this happened two years ago... I guess that's what passes for news around here. He's been swear-free for a long time...

    --
    The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
  4. Re:Not a big deal by tsa · · Score: 5, Informative

    We Dutch don't use sex a lot in swear words. We use diseases. Teringlijer, kankerhoer, krijg de tyfus, and more like that.

    --

    -- Cheers!