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Microsoft's Cortana Doesn't Put Up With Sexual Harassment (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: Not long after Apple unveiled its Siri personal assistant to the world, it took very little time before people began asking her outrageous questions, sometimes inappropriate or just humorous, if for no other reason than they just could. When creating Cortana, Microsoft was well-aware of what its digital assistant was going to have to deal with, so, believe it or not, it was designed in such a way to handle abuse in a specific manner. According to Microsoft's Deborah Harrison, who is one of eight writers for Cortana, a chunk of the earliest queries were about Cortana's sex life. A specific goal was to make sure Cortana wasn't treated as a subservient. If she's insulted, she doesn't apologize or back down. She handles it with tact, so as to reduce the chance of further abuse.
I can't wait for the first case of sexual assault of an "AI." Will this get me fired from my job?
Why do 'certain people' always cry the loudest about language, yet decry the 'politically correct' at every turn?
In truth, the programming Cortana is designed so that it will be taken more seriously, rather than as a toy for someone trolling for 'naughty' easter eggs. Whereas decades of right wing lunatics have 'programmed' you to whine about 'liberals' at every turn.
An accurate answer to any question should be the standard.
And I'll believe Cortana is a woman when I can see her vagina. Or penis if she's transgendered. Until then I suspect the people who are worried about "her" sexuality are the same ones who beat off while watching "MacPlaymate" in the early 90's
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
I think you are on to something here. We need to remember why there are inappropriate questions in the first place.
The essential reason is because asking them is likely to be insulting, deeming, or otherwise hurtful. As you point out my computer feels no pain, emotional or otherwise.
Programming a response is fine. I don't really care. Want a fake AI to respond differently, pay for one. The more interesting bit is when you take it several steps further.
1) Person asks inappropriate questions about [insert topic]
2) Inappropriate questions trigger safe responses.
3) Profile updated with stats related to inappropriate questions.
4) Profile exceeds threshold for [insert topic]. Forward stats to [insert three letter agency].
This seems to me an obvious extension of current thought processes of law enforcement. Throw in some statistics where it shows that these stats are useful for predicting crime, and your more or less in minority report land.
Okay, fine. Here's a hypothetical situation for you.
Last week, a coworker openly insulted me in a meeting last week. No consequence will befall said coworker for reasons that aren't relevant.
I go home and see his face on my 80-lb punching bag. I spend an hour beating on my punching bag because I'm frustrated.
Do you think that me using my punching bag for an avatar of a real person is going to make me more abusive to other people? Or do you think that maybe it channels that energy into doing something constructive because the limited amount of energy I had to spend on the matter has been expended on the punching bag?
Now, one could argue I have anger issues. One could also say that if I took to my punching bag at 5:00 pm when the insult I took was at 9:30 am and didn't punch (or in any way abuse) ANYONE during the day means that if I DID have anger issues, that's I'm perfectly able to control it and not abuse people.
So, then, what's the difference? Because it's sexual and not violent that the people who think in sexual terms are likely to do the opposite than my strategy for dealing with my frustrations? Or because sexuality is so sacred that it can't be misused with inanimate objects for fear of misinterpreting it in the "real world"? Or because people dwell on a situation so much that once they expend their energy on it once, they unhealthily obsess about it by re-creating the situation where any person will lie down and take it? And even worse, that these people are the norm?
I'd say yours is the bugaboo with sexuality. At least moreso than those people who you would claim to "abuse" Cortana.
Some people don't believe in fairies. I don't believe in The Patriarchy.