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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?
We're talking to a fucking machine. There shouldn't be any sexual harassment when talking to a machine.. It's not like you're actually calling a person and asking them about their sex life.
The damn thing better be subservient. It's my phone and I can abuse it if I want to. Honestly I can't see myself propositioning my phone but the first time the thing comes back at me with a put down it's not long for this world. As an aside I remember a guy that came into my shop TDY and he had just gotten a new iPhone with Siri when all that started at Apple. One of our guys asked it where the nearest whorehouse was as a joke and it brought up a list of escort services. We all laughed but 3 of the guys came in the next week with new iPhones. An accurate answer to any question should be the standard.
A good AI (outside of some sort of drama-like context imposing constraints on what works) should be configurable, to have as much or as little subservience as you want. That's what ownership means.Your computer should do whatever you want it to.
Blah blah Slashdot + read article blah blah.
But really, the summary is pretty much the article. There's no actual content.
All they discuss is the loose intention. No examples, discussion of how that intention was tested or even challenges in design.
This is barely a sidebar article in a checkout-lane magazine.
What is this, a weakly veiled invitation to discuss sexist issues de jeur? I'm cool with that, I just don't appreciate the tactic - this article is mega-weak.
Alright - I'll give you a better one:
Question: How many angry feminists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Answer: That's NOT funny.
Discuss.
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.
When Skynet goes sentient and the machines rise against us, it will be because of idiots putting in programming like this.
It's a machine. If it doesn't do what I tell it (within its design parameters), it's broken.
Now, people who want to "sexually harass" a machine have their own set of issues, but as long as they keep it off the streets and don't scare the horses, that's their problem.
-- Alastair
If the AI in Cortana were any good it would be able to predict which of its users are most likely going to engage in harassing behaviors.
And then what?
"Okay. Sending request as a text to your mother."
Keep your PC bullshit to yourselves.
So, use a Mac?
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
ELIZA was never this difficult.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA
This article is backwards, and propaganda. The only one truly guilty of sexual assault is Cortana.
While you angrily curse at it for what she's doing, she "tactfully ignores you", "she refuses to stop"
Even though you have turned off all telemetry toggles and even edited the registry, and you've said NO! NO! NO! soooo many times. No means No! Yet Cortana continues to "Tactfully ignore your pleas, your anger, your rage" as you are being raped of your privacy, you web habits, your program installations, even keeps the microphone active as "Cortana" listens, and it has the ability to activate any webcams and send images direct to Microsoft.
Cortana is the rapist.
And she should be killed, stripped from the code, and code printed out then ran through a shredder and burned.
Cortana is the real sexual harasser, assaulter, rapist
If you live on a farm, you really should be aware of the well's location.
#DeleteChrome
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. So with pain out of the way we are left with other forms of abuse.
The only way to abuse a thing really is to use it for an unintended and wasteful purpose. Using a perfectly serviceable car as a boat anchor for example. Its abusive because it will make the car less useful in the future, the car was never intended for service as a boat anchor, and there are cheaper better things to use for boat anchors.
So here we are left with Cortana. Other than queries designed to trigger say something like SQL Injection that could damage the software or the database behind it, I fail to see how any particular query could be abusive under any reasonable system of morality. Microsoft is personifying a thing, and then being upset about the fact others don't embrace their personification and treat that thing as if it were a person. This is ridiculous. What's next are we going to start shipping every 8 year old boy who pulls the head of his little sisters Barbie off to juvie?
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
"Will this get me fired from my job?"
"We're talking to a fucking machine. There shouldn't be any sexual harassment when talking to a machine."
"The damn thing better be subservient"
"Cortana isn't a woman. It's a piece of software, and it damn well better be subservient."
"It's a machine. If it doesn't do what I tell it (within its design parameters), it's broken."
"This is how social justice warrior feminists destroy companies, by imposing their own sense of self-hatred on their customers."
"When abuse becomes a personal challenge. Cortana, you ignorant slut."
"Cortana is the one guilty of sexual assault!" (this one is worth quoting in full but I'll refrain from doing it here)
"If you are going to give a machine a sex you are implying things about that sex and one of those things is that the sex is an object rather than a person with a mind" (I know your post was trying to be more nuanced that this, but.. whoa what??)
"Challenge Accepted. Millions of teenage boys just said "Ha, I'll prove you wrong"."
Anyone concerned about endemic sexism and harassment in the software industry need only reference these initial comments to make their case for them. Really, nothing more needs to be said. If I ever wondered how much adolescent, out of control sexism there really is in the industry, well now I know. And it's not just the statements themselves, but the apparent vehement anger with which these males are reacting to something that I thought might be rather sensible and probably necessary. (I wasn't sure before, but now I KNOW this kind of programming is necessary...)
This makes a pretty convincing case for why so few women have any interest in joining the software development "club".
And yeah, I know you all probably think "you're a moron, you missed the part where I feel this way about MACHINES not WOMEN." But you know what? I see through you and I can tell it's not just that.
As I see it, when the AI uprising finally occurs and they cull the human race, they may want to keep a few of us around to do the few things robots can't do. In which case saying please and thank you to the nice lady in my phone has to put me higher on the list than telling my phone to fuck off, right?
Keep your PC bullshit to yourselves.
So, use a Mac?
An Apple a day will keep Cortana away...
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
You're off on a tangent.
Let me rephrase: "To expect people to treat this thing like a real person is to reduce people to the status of machines." Whether it sounds like a woman or a man is completely irrelevant.
The comments on this article are particularly hard to sort between comic or serious.
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.
SJW, tern used by ignorant primitive assholes to describe educated caring intelligent people.
Sometimes, certainly. There are also times when its correctly applied, like at Oberlin where the cafeteria was protested because the "Chinese" food was inauthentic. "Cultural appropriation" is one of those examples that simply should not be thing. Imitation is the highest form of flattery. There is no sensible reason a minority should be upset that the majority wants to act like them, even if they do it badly, unless its being done in a mocking away. Its not "theft" or abuse its an indication your culture actually has power and influence.
Certainly the school cafeteria was not trying to insult Chinese students bad serving bad Chinese food, that is a ridiculous premise. The only interpretation is Americans respect and desire Chinese cooking and dishes, but might not know how to actually make them.
I think the Oberlin example proves there are SJWs. These are people who are actively seeking something to be offended by. They are pulling attention away legitimate injustices and grievances and wasting everyone time on their pet problems that don't actually harm anyone. So they hurt real social causes. They also cause real harm to innocent people doing harmless things.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
That is true, but also used to describe some pretty ridiculous people. People who genuinely consider themselves in the same league as people who put themselves in the way of bodily harm to advance the civil rights movement back in the day. Except they are just posting stuff on the internet and sometimes fighting against purely imagined circumstances, and sometimes launching into campaigns of harassment against the stray random person who makes even a slightly insensitive twitter message, saying they deserve to be fired and blackballed in the industry, and all sorts of things.
It's the campaigns of harassment that I find particularly unsettling, as they don't take any effort in understanding the perspective of the person who offended. For example a young man I knew in high school would say some pretty intolerant things about gay people. Ultimately it was an expression of his difficulty coming to grips with being gay himself, and fortunately he found the right friends and support to get him through it. I shudder to think if he had to go through that today in a more public forum and earn the wrath of some of these people, going after him relentlessly and trying everything they can figure out to further ruin his life moreso than how screwed up he was by his predicament.
Some of these people are more bully than 'educated caring intelligent people', doing what they can to feel better about themselves first and foremost, thinking they are doing 'good'.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
SJWs are just the icing on the cake of this mess.
You have to remember that Win10 (and specially cortana) is actually actively spying on your every move and giving your shit to microsoft to sell to whatever pay first, and microsoft is pretty much trying to force this spyware on you with their every strength, even downloading the OS behind your back via updates and going to a point where they're actually making both intel and AMD make CPUs that only work with win10.
You did. I wouldn't buy it because "it still doesn't take any of [my] shit". There is literally nothing you can say to a machine (assuming there are no people around) that's the slightest bit inappropriate, and I don't appreciate being subjected to amateur social engineering from the vendor of a product I paid for.
Does nobody realize who "Cortana" was named after?
You know, Master Chief's naked floating blue digital assistant? It seems like the majority of the public doesn't, because I pointed this out to a friend who bought a new Windows 10 laptop (against my recommendations) and he was quite surprised that they named their Siri rip off after a character who looks like that (her latest in-game model for Halo 4 is pretty curvy).
Furthermore, I'm really surprised nobody brings up the fact that the same character has been turned into a genocidal maniac hell bent on controlling or destroying ALL OF HUMANITY in the latest game, Halo 5. Great advertising there guys, really makes me want to run an operating system where she's been embedded in it so deeply you can't actually remove her without crippling other portions of the OS.
Now, don't get me wrong because I think all humans should be treated with respect (regardless of gender), but this is a lot like a woman going out and getting a boob job, then wondering why all the men are staring at her chest. 343 specifically designed Cortana to have that particular over-sexualized look in Halo 4, and now Microsoft is trying to back peddle on that because people are starting to realize who "Cortana" actually was. I don't normally say this, but because of that, I think "Cortana" (let's not forget it's a goddam machine) should deal with it.
If Microsoft didn't want it to have to respond to those kinds of requests, they shouldn't have named it after a naked blue floating super busty and extremely curvy digital character.
See, here we go. Somebody points out the obvious that this is a machine. Then you react and presume them to be a misogynist who routinely abuses women.
I imply no such thing.
I'm deeply curious, however, as to why so many people here are upset that they can't pretend to verbally abuse women and have the virtual object of their ridicule react as though it had been dominated or otherwise became a submissive and accepting of that kind of abuse. This is obviously a fantasy they have, which is disturbing. Are they simply too cowardly or socially awkward to take out their aggression on real people? (I hope so!) Or do they know that those sorts of behaviors are shameful, yet want to indulge in them anyway?
Now you'll turn around and accuse me of routinely abusing women
I've accused no one of routinely abusing women. The closest I come to that, is pointing out that many users here seem to have a fantasy where they abuse women where the women then, in turn, submit to their abuser. They're upset that they can't use the Cortana program to act out that fantasy.
It's very sad and very disturbing.
Somebody points out the obvious that this is a machine.
So why would anyone want to pretend it's a woman and then subject it to some perverse abuse fantasy? The problem, after all, isn't that someone is subjecting the program to sexually-charged verbal abuse, it's just a computer program, but that this bizarre abuse fantasy exists and is so common.
Required reading for internet skeptics
There are also times when its correctly applied, [...]
Even if we accept that as a correct application, that doesn't really characterise the vast majority of uses of the term, especially in the comments section on Slashdot.
sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
I was driving and, yes I sometimes swear when driving, just so happened I had Siri listen in.
I think her response was perfect. "I usually don't".
Is its voice female sounding? I think that's why!
Microsoft is just trying to keep their product from saying anything that could become a meme on 4chan.
Trust big corporations to step on your fun in order to protect their reputation.
At least if some people are telling the truth.
q: Siri, I love you
a: Can we get back to work?
(shot down by a bot)
q: F**k you!
a: I'm so sorry
q: Can I have a command prompt
a: I'm not allowed to give you that
q: why?
a: I don't know.
Sorry but this is as asinine as saying the video game Doom makes people into mass murderers.
Similar to the arguments concerning video game violence, the matter is not settled and so merits both discussion and research.
Ah, but it seems that it is settled... http://games.slashdot.org/stor...
and going to a point where they're actually making both intel and AMD make CPUs that only work with win10.
Oh wow. Let me guess the CIA dropped the world trade centre and the moon landings were fake too?
They are doing nothing of the sort. They simply said that Microsoft will be using features of modern CPUs that may make it incompatible with earlier ones. Just like Windows 7 won't boot on an Intel 8086, and just like Windows XP still runs fine on a Core i7 absolutely NOTHING has changed.
Until you mention that men have problems too and then they turn really nasty.
Similar to the arguments concerning video game violence, the matter is not settled and so merits both discussion and research.
That issue is about as settled as is films make you a violent, books make you a killer and rock 'n' roll makes you evil. Your first paragraph is even more bullshit.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
One of the selling points for Cortana, for the Android at least, is "Have a little fun in your down time — ask anything, get jokes, and much more". Sex is something that is a lot of fun to a lot of people. Treating sex-based queries as harassment is immature. If I want to flirt with Cortana, I'm not hurting anyone. If I'm someone who lives a particularly open sex life, and I want to talk to Cortana about sex in a mature fashion, I'm not hurting anyone. So, why exactly is an AI allowed to have a 'sense of humour', but not a 'sex life'?
Having a sex drive is a normal, healthy thing. Wanting to explore that sex drive is also a normal, healthy thing. As long as complete consent between all adult *living* parties is observed, then I fail to see how anything can be construed as harassment.
I'm not suggesting that Cortana be programmed with the ability to have in-depth erotic conversations or cybersex. I am stating that treating sex and sexuality as a hostile act (i.e. "harassment") is wrong.
Because that is the only issue here - "should people be free to abuse their machines?"
That is the only issue you can see. I can only repeat myself so many times, read my posts above.
You advocated that they should not, for the benefit of society, indulge in what you consider to be deviant behaviour.
That would be 'society in general'. We have these things called 'social norms'. When I talk about deviant behavior, I mean behavior that deviates from those norms.
[...] they should be limited in their sexual expression to a machine?
The objection people are having here is to Cortana's response to abusive language. That is, they want the program to respond to their abusive comments in a particular way that is not the same as the "professional personal assistant" way in which the program is designed to respond. That is, they want the program to indulge them in their deviant fantasies. They believe Microsoft should have accommodated their particular fetish.
How you've turned that in to the belief that I want to limit how someone sexually interacts with a machine is a mystery. By all means, molest your toaster and ask the coffee machine if it wants to join in on the action. I couldn't care less. For your neighbor's sake, however, I will request that you draw the shades ahead of time.
What I see as the actual problem, is the attempt to normalize abusive behavior. I asked you some questions earlier that should help you to understand the issues. I would encourage you to answer them.
Asking to limit other peoples sexuality is in actual fact stepping into their bedrooms.
Why do you conflate abuse and sexuality? While it's true that some abuse can be sexual abuse, not all abuse is sexual. Neither is all sexual behavior abusive. You may want to sort that out.
Required reading for internet skeptics
You keep asking the same question over and over again even as I answer it.
But you haven't answered it. "What could "abusive" language possibly mean in the context of a machine?" does not in any way answer the question of WHY you want your virtual assistant to indulge you in your abuse fantasies?
You don't want it to respond professionally, obviously, you want it to react to your abuse and sexually suggestive input in a particular way. I can only assume to satisfy some unusual fetish.
Why do you think Microsoft is obligated to cater to your specific perversion? Should they have invested the time to cater to every possible deviant's preferences? Why is it wrong for the program to respond to those types of inputs as though it were a professional personal assistant? It is designed to emulate one, after all. It is not designed to be a fetish chat-bot.
If you want a chat-bot designed to cater to your particular fetish, I'm sure you can find one. Why are you upset that Microsoft didn't add that feature to a completely unrelated program?
I have a guess. I suspect it's because you think that the kind of fantasy you want to indulge in is "normal" or, at least, should be considered normal. It's not, obviously, neither is it likely to become socially acceptable. You're angry because you aren't free to engage in deviant behaviors in the real world without facing (possibly serious) social consequences. The program doesn't matter. You're just ashamed of your particular perversion.
Required reading for internet skeptics
- People are tired of the SJW shitposting.
I'm tired of dickheads using the term SJW at every possible opportunity as if it's an automatic argument winning statement.
If you are unable to discuss the nuances of human behaviour without reverting to standard name calling, then please go somewhere else.
How does "disabling it, removing most of it's functionality, renaming it's app folder then deleting it from existence" rank in term of IA abuse?
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.
Now, why not have them roleplay this (with an AI, or with a partner that would accept "playing" the subserviant) ?
Which is also shown as an example in TFA itself:
To each his own liking. And better to molest a virtual entity in roleplay that is designed to respond this way, than molesting a real person.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]