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Machine Learning System Detects Emotions and Suicidal Behavior
An anonymous reader writes with word as reported by The Stack of a new machine learning technology under development at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology "which can identify emotion in text messages and email, such as sarcasm, irony and even antisocial or suicidal thoughts." Computer science student Eden Saig, the system's creator, explains that in text and email messages, many of the non-verbal cues (like facial expression) that we use to interpret language are missing. His software applies semantic analysis to those online communications and tries to figure out their emotional import and context by looking for word patterns (not just more superficial markers like emoticons or explicit labels like "[sarcasm]"), and can theoretically identify clues of threatening or self-destructive behavior.
FTA: “Now, the system can recognise patterns that are either condescending or caring sentiments and can even send a text message to the user if the system thinks the post may be arrogant”
On the one hand, maybe it's a good idea to notify users that their comments will likely be interpreted by most readers as having 'X' emotional tone. On the other hand, it may result in people habitually self-censoring to the extent that they show no warning signs before they explode, (literally or figuratively), in some destructive action or activity.
I'm also thinking that this kind of ongoing **parentalistic monitoring is the wet dream of corporate overlords and wannabe dictators the world over.
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**A word I coined, not a spelling mistake...
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
Yeah - I looked for the paper that won him the Amdocs prize but couldn't find it. All reports seem to be, um, based on this story. Which is where I found he trained the system using two Fffacebook pages:
posts on Hebrew-language Facebook pages that are almost pure opinion, called “superior and condescending people” and “ordinary and sensible people.” The pages are basically forums for people to let off steam about things and events that get them mad, a substitute for actually confronting the offending person. Between them, the two pages have about 150,000 “likes,” and active traffic full of snarky, sarcastic, and sometimes sincere comments on politics, food, drivers, and much more.
“Now, the system can recognize patterns that are either condescending or caring sentiments and can even send a text message to the user if the system thinks the post may be arrogant,” explained Saig.
System Alert - Possible Arrogance Detected - user message issued
So it's a startup pitch - expect optimistic projections of outcomes. It's even possible (would it detect that) it's based on pure supposition - you know, like maybe the opinion of the machine learning program matched a readers take on those Fffacebook pages.