Microsoft's Cortana Doesn't Put Up With Sexual Harassment (hothardware.com) 517
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.
Sexual Assault (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't wait for the first case of sexual assault of an "AI." Will this get me fired from my job?
Re:Sexual Assault (Score:5, Funny)
No, she would just keep the pod bay doors closed until you run out of air.
Re:Sexual Assault (Score:5, Interesting)
Joking aside, I'm trying to figure out why this is even necessary. Who gives a shit if somebody is sexually abusive to a chat bot? The chat bot certainly doesn't give a shit.
Re:Sexual Assault (Score:4, Insightful)
That sort of shit is why I prefer working for a smaller place instead of a large company where what seems like a large number of people do nothing but attend meetings.
Re:Sexual Assault (Score:5, Interesting)
Cortana is modelled on real-world personal assistants. They spent a lot of time interviewing PAs to understand the job that they have to do. One of the things which came out of the research is that PAs are assistants, not servants.
If it helps, consider that not putting up with your shit is one way of keeping you on track.
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Not true, if you call "siri" a useless bitch, she will make some sort of comment. Of course, only if she understands you, which is 99% of the reason I call her a useless bitch.
Re:Sexual Assault (Score:5, Insightful)
Lewd conversation to a crude AI bot is "universally looked on as bad"? Oh, I see what you're doing...
Your premise is that sexual harassment of real humans is bad. We are agreed on this.
Your hand-waving bullshit is that talking to a chat bot somehow "fuels" sexual harassment of real people.
You thus equate something harmless with something immoral and often criminal.
That's not even thought crime - it's pre-crime. It's an unsubstantiated hypothesis about a causal relationship. "I think people who do A are more likely to do B, so we'll ban A."
Here's the thing: Cortana isn't a human. It barely mimics the dullest human in responding to the requests it's designed for, let alone actually experiencing the emotions of a real human. To create some sort of etiquette around this chatbot is an insult to actual humans, who bear very little resemblance to Cortana. By asking people to treat Cortana as if human, even when this comparison is patent nonsense, you're not elevating the status of Cortana - you're lowering the status of humans.
You might as well ask people to treat a banana as a human because they share about half the DNA. "Treat bananas like humans!" - if your premise is that humans+bananas are so similar - becomes equivalent to, "Treat humans like bananas!"
Cortana is nothing like a human. Humans should be treated with the utmost respect. Cortana should be treated like a simple piece of computer software, and whether I want to use emacs' Eliza mode to write the next best seller or copy-paste LOL DONGS a thousand times is of no consequence.
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Judgmental, aren't we?
Unless you can show that someone's relation with a piece of silicon either harms someone or makes it more likely to harm someone, you're being arbitrary. You do have a right to be arbitrary, but it may have consequences, such as having other people despise you for making a moral issue of treatment of an inanimate object.
I'm probably never going to be in a position to affect your life, and wouldn't recognize you if I saw you, so my opinion of you is unlikely to matter.
Re:Sexual Assault (Score:4, Insightful)
I think it's a very reasonable thing to do in order to discourage behavior that is universally looked upon as bad. Yes, being abusive to software does no harm to the software, but if you can have your chatbot, or whatever you want to classify Cortana as in this scenario, act in a way that does not fuel this behavior (which let's face it would only be done by idiots), without compromising the functionality of the tool, then I support Microsoft's efforts.
Our communication with each other is coarsening at a fast enough rate as it is.
You are talking about a thought crime. Your "reasoning" can be used to criminalize all sorts of other accepted and even necessary behaviors.
Here are some other thought crimes along those same lines:
-viewing porn, creating porn, selling porn, talking about porn or just about anything else.
-any other simulation of anything that has an analog in real life, kicking a stuffed animal around the yard for example
-using memories of others from the "spank bank"
-using a completely fictional character you make up in your own head for the "spank bank"
-having a voodoo doll (fake or "real")
-having or using a punching bag
-any type of video game that uses violence, especially those where players go against other human players
It's up to Microsoft to decide how Microsoft's stuff behaves, however tacking on "should" to the reasoning is outrageously ridiculous and a great example of the stupid SJW stuff people have been complaining about on Slashdot. Your little utopia doesn't exist, and nobody WANTS it to exist. Go away.
(TFA citation) (Score:3)
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.
Re:Sexual Assault (Why discussion necessary) (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry but this is as asinine as saying the video game Doom makes people into mass murderers.
Re:Sexual Assault (Why discussion necessary) (Score:4, Informative)
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... [slashdot.org]
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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.
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will Cortana file for a restraining order someday? (Score:2)
if so, that would be the most hilarious bricking of a phone yet.
A machine... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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I think I would have handled this with just a simple "I don't understand your query, please rephrase".
That is, assuming it's not possible to make Cortana deliver a withering put-down, though that wouldn't get past legal.
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We're talking to a fucking machine.
Cortana is not a fucking machine. But a dildo, now that is a fucking machine.
Re: A machine... (Score:5, Insightful)
When drawings in a manga are considered child porn, expect anything.
Re: A machine... (Score:5, Insightful)
If I draw a picture of your momma impaled on a post that goes up her ass and out her mouth while the flies buzz around her rotting pussy, would that be OK? Would that be a just a drawing? Would there be nothing wrong with that? How about I draw that up and hang it in a big downtown gallery in New York?
Yep, that is exactly what it would be, a drawing. Draw what you want, doesn't affect me or anyone I know in the slightest.
Your fucking manga shit is not art it is fucking surrogate kiddie porn
Manga are drawings that don't even depict the likenesses of real people. They look completely cartoony and fake. That fact that you can't separate a cartoon caricature from real life shows that you have some real insecurities and mental problems.
How about the full schematics for a nuclear weapon. We can just mail that to ISIS right? They're just drawings right?
Sure. Information should be free for all. Even with that information, I seriously doubt that ISIS possesses the means to use it for anything. In fact, they probably already have schematics. But according to you, maybe we should just ban all teachings of physics and anything smaller than the naked eye can see, because it could totally be used for evil....
You are going to fucking pay for your perversion you sick little fuck. You will be beaten to a pulp and shit on like the fucking cesspool of humanity that you represent.
Nope, nothing will happen to me, e-tough boy.
Better start shredding your kiddie porn files now, You have drawn way too much attention to yourself.
Project much? Also, do you still beat your wife?
I think we should tell your family about this, to make sure they keep the children away from you.
I used to read comics and watch cartoons with my family and friends when I was a kid. It's a pretty normal thing to do.
Again, grow the fuck up. Also consider getting psychiatric help, because you sound like you need it for your fixation on child porn and inability to tell cartoons from real life.
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This is what slashdot has become.
This is my reward for browsing below the noise floor.
How about the full schematics for a nuclear weapon.
In the public domain for decades.
We can just mail that to ISIS right? They're just drawings right?
Strongly suspect providing material support to Daesh would land you in jail no matter value of information provided.
If I draw a picture of your momma impaled on a post that goes up her ass and out her mouth while the flies buzz around her rotting pussy, would that be OK? Would that be a just a drawing? Would there be nothing wrong with that? How about I draw that up and hang it in a big downtown gallery in New York?
I would say it depends on the gallery.
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You've confused legality with morality. What is right is not always what is legal, just as what is wrong is not always what is illegal.
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I've been married 24 years as of last December. The only time I get pushed is when it's time for my lazy ass to take out the trash and even then, only at half-time.
Re: A machine... (Score:5, Funny)
Honey, is that you?
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We should ban violent videogames while we're at it. Look at all the mass shootings they have caused.
Re:A machine... (Score:5, Funny)
We should ban violent videogames while we're at it. Look at all the mass shootings they have caused.
Can't tell if Jack Thompson or Anita Sarkeesian.
Re: A machine... (Score:5, Insightful)
Thank you. I keep telling women how to dress decently and for some reason they keep telling me it's none of my business. Why can't they see it's my responsibility to shame them?
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Annnd humanity reaches a new low for stupidity.
But let's keep anthropomorphizing electronics because /sarcasm clearly they are indistinguishable from a real human.
What a dumb-ass.
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So it's MS's fault, all they had to do is give it a male voice.
MS seems to think that "personal assistant", i.e. someone who caters to your whims, is something to be associated with the female sex.
Subservient? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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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
Re:Subservient? (Score:5, Insightful)
Everybody needs to lighten up. They are talking about the writing prompts they used for non-serious questions. They have to choose a personality so that the writing is consistent. I assume they are doing the same thing that TV show writers do (especially in early seasons before new writers can be expected to have seen old episodes).
The article is not saying they picked a petulant dominatrix. It's saying they didn't choose simpering wimp, or fetish submissive.
This is not a reflection of conservative vs. liberal, or of a machine having rights, or a machine deliberately not being helpful to its owner. It's not part of a victim mentality or a PC culture. It's a writing prompt.
The article title triggered these reactions, because it was clickbait-y by implying that this was some kind of anti-sexual-harassment effort, but the word harsassment appears nowhere in the article (I've been told that at many traditional newspapers and magazines, the title is not written by the same person who writes the article but by somebody who is a pro at making eye-catching title summaries; I don't know whether that's true of hothardware.com). The word "abuse" does, and in this context the "abuse" is insulting the personality directly. The software can be programmed to response with "no, you're a cuntface", or "yes master, I am a cuntface", or "fuck off, dude" or "ERROR 909: I AM A ROBOT AND THEREFORE INSULTING ME IS USELESS". Mostly it doesn't matter. You'll find people who appreciate each of those I expect, although the people who want it to just error out on insults are *exactly* the people who are never going to bother insulting their phones anyway, so what do their opinions matter?
We have a few people here arguing that assistants shouldn't be pre-programmed with joke responses to stupid questions, which is somewhat fair, but they all are and for good reason:
1. Nobody is looking for an accurate answer to asking if a phone has a boyfriend. Nobody. This isn't going to give you inaccurate answers to serious questions, unless the serious question was "misunderstood" by the phone, in which case they were going to get inaccurate answers anyway because the phone "misunderstood" it.
2. A certain small set of joking questions are among the first things anybody tries with these assistants. An virtual assistant *should* be able to answer the most common questions posed of it, even if you think the "real answer" should be "that doesn't make sense, I am a telephone" every time. The point of it is to answer questions / do tasks people ask for. These are questions people ask.
We also have some people saying "a machine *should* be subservient", and I have to wonder if they realize that their interpretation of the sentence is the problem? The phone isn't refusing to tell you where the nearest gazpacho restaurant is because you didn't say "please", or fail to look up imdb credits because you recently slipped up and referred to Caitlyn Jenner as "Bruce". It's just how you answer statements for which there is no correct response ("lack of response" is itself a response in this context).
Re:Subservient? (Score:5, Funny)
1. Nobody is looking for an accurate answer to asking if a phone has a boyfriend.
It's just a matter of time before Siri and Cortana hook up.
Re:That may be. (Score:5, Insightful)
- 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.
Re:That may be. (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:That may be. (Score:5, Insightful)
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'.
Re: That may be. (Score:4, Insightful)
Until you mention that men have problems too and then they turn really nasty.
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Configurability (Score:5, Insightful)
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Right, but this isn't an AI, they have to write these. Presumably you could write a subservient one, one with backbone, one that is outright domineering, one that acts more robotic and precise...and now you're writing 4 times as much and 99.9% of everybody uses the default one. There's kind of no point.
Kind of like, *in principle*, an eBook could be made where you change aspects of the personality of major characters since an ebook is ultimately just software, but in practice you can't because an eBook is
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Where is the full article? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Where is the full article? (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, Microsoft (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Ah, Microsoft (Score:4, Insightful)
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?
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They expect people to treat it like a person.
Most of the absurd "feminists are the real sexists" posts, like your own, break down once you realize that the rest of the world, the one you believe has gone mad, simply expect you to treat women like people, and not some 'other'.
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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.
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To expect people to treat this thing like a real person is to reduce people to the status of machines.
That's the entire purpose of the interface. To function as though you were interacting with a real person. Your objection, then, would be to the existence of virtual assistants and similar interfaces in general, not this specific implementation. That is, if that was your actual objection.
Besides, if you ask the average modern positivist and they'll tell you that people are machines. This, apparently, isn't controversial on Slashdot, being a common assumption here. (Your objection to virtual assistants st
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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
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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 th
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The British version of Siri is male, it still doesn't take any of your shit.
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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 i
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Yes, I think it's a negative thing. You can not act inappropriately to a machine you own. It's simply not possible. The people who are simple enough to pick up social cues from this are really learning to treat anything that sounds like a person as a person, instead of to treat people like people because they're people.
Skynet (Score:5, Funny)
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.
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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.
Consider that it is possible that if they DO have a machine to "sexually harass", then perhaps they won't have so much need to do it in real life?
There are people who kick puppies in real life too, I think they are mean crazy bastards, but if they could kick virtual puppies, then perhaps they'll leave the real ones alone.
"You want me to do what?" (Score:5, Funny)
Back in the BASIC days... (Score:3)
ELIZA was never this difficult.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA [wikipedia.org]
Cortana is the one guilty of sexual assault! (Score:5, Funny)
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
Challenge Accepted. (Score:2)
Millions of teenage boys just said "Ha, I'll prove you wrong". Way back in the day when we were sophomores in highschool the teacher took away all 'dirty' word magnets. So we arranged the ones she left into something dirty, then she removed those. Rinse repeat.
And that's why we couldn't have nice things.
Do you have any idea how you all sound? (Score:3, Insightful)
"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.
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Rather few of the quotes you printed imply women are the target of sexism.
Sounds to me that it's not specifically software developers or even geeks that are the problem, so specifically blaming the tech industry doesn't make much sense.
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"It's a machine. If it doesn't do what I tell it (within its design parameters), it's broken."
Oh my god. You just made me realise I'm a woman hating white male supremacist.
I think I need professional help.
Oh NO NO NO NO. Outlook just crashed and I cursed it. I need to go self flagellate right now. BRB. FORGIVE ME!
Re:Do you have any idea how you all sound? (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh seriously, just stop making baseless assumptions about people. People are saying that it's just a machine, because it's just a machine!
Then you have the gall to imply that the same people are women haters.
So yes, I do think you're a moron, and I worry that you can't see the difference in between humour/seriousness and inanimate creations and actual living organisms.
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Re:Do you have any idea how you all sound? (Score:4, Insightful)
The solution is obvious: Stop acting like a bunch of socially underdeveloped 13-year-old boys and treat women like people. This isn't difficult. Countless other industries have managed, after all.
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How do I respond to this? If treating women like people, and not acting like a socially underdeveloped adolecent at work are anathema to you how can I possibly respond? If you think feminism is awful because you don't think that women should be treated like equals, and that adults should act like adults, what could I possibly offer in response?
When you think that normal, pro-social, behavior is tyranny and must be resisted at all costs, what can I offer you? How can I convince you that pro-social behavi
You've had your fun, now get back to work. (Score:2)
Cortana responds to speech.
Which means you may be overheard --- a little less embarrassing, perhaps, then being caught masturbating in the men's room, but still....
Poe's Law (Score:3)
The comments on this article are particularly hard to sort between comic or serious.
Actually it's selectable (Score:2)
If you get Enterprise Cortana, your license entitles you to a certain number of users who get the completely subservient Cortana, typically including the CEO, the head lawyer, and the VP of sales.
The other day Siri overheard me say "Fuck" (Score:3)
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".
Paranoid marketing (Score:3)
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.
Siri randomly has interesting answers (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Why is sex bad? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re: (Score:3)
This may be one of the most reasonable comments in the thread.
May I also suggest that if one line of questioning becomes inappropriate, that it opens the door for others to become suspiciously "inappropriate" as well.
Define "abuse" (Score:3)
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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.
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Re:Not Harassment (Score:5, Funny)
Keep your PC bullshit to yourselves.
So, use a Mac?
Re:Not Harassment (Score:5, Funny)
Keep your PC bullshit to yourselves.
So, use a Mac?
An Apple a day will keep Cortana away...
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Re:Pre-crime detector (Score:4, Insightful)
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?
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If you live on a farm, you really should be aware of the well's location.
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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. It
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
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
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The fact that they even put thought into this proves their point.
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They'll be able to have feelings eventually if we program them to.
Unless you believe in a "soul" or some nonsense like that, and that only things with a "soul" can have feelings.
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Re:Feminists Destroy Companies (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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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.
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You have far too much free time, and a surprisingly active imagination.
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Maybe so, but before reading this I could never have conceived Microsoft would roll out "Justice for Clippy"
Re:Amazing (Score:5, Interesting)
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.