A New Perspective to Online Comments
I found out at some point that searching simply for “Google” inside Google doesn’t break the internet. It does however reveal some interesting recent news about Google in the results, which are sometimes just fascinating reads.
We’re all almost probably aware that the internet houses trolls in every corner of forums, chatrooms and IRCs etc. So I found this on my Google search travels today.
Interesting. The BBC reports that Google wants to make the world less toxic, what does that mean? I could use a new pair of jeans too.
The article goes onto explain that Google has created an new AI. One that’s capable of learning what a string of text actually means. It analyses the text to determine how ‘toxic’ it is by a score of 0.1 to 1.0. Simple isn’t it?
The BBC also explains some other stuff. Here’s the full article.
The article never actually linked to the Perspective site, nor anything for that matter. So after a quick search of Jigsaw Perspective, I found what I was looking for.
It turns out that this API, one of many, is rather simple in what it does and how it does it. At least to the end user (developer).
Google says…
Perspective is an API that makes it easier to host better conversations. The API uses machine learning models to score the perceived impact a comment might have on a conversation.
Which translates to…
This cool demo shows how you can filter comments which are more or less ‘toxic’ which is determined by a wide range of factors. Anything from spelling something wrong to using the wrong bloody word will have an impact on the toxicity score.
There’s so many applications in which you could use this, and you could also use the API to try and make visitor comments nicer by having the API rate a comment before it’s posted and suggesting that the commenter changes it before posting to something more calm and friendlier.
However, all of this is not quite within reach just yet. Google says that they are sending API keys out on a “rolling basis” so you have to request access first and explain your intentions before they’ll let you test it. I think it’s great and hope this kind of thing is used wherever possible.
I don’t think it censors anything either or prevents freedom of speech. It’s useful because it lets you filter out the comments you might not want. It’s your choice to read them or not. I’m all for it.
You can read more about Perspective today.
You can also read my blog which is here. I try to write as regularly as I can which consists of personal opinions and other nonsense from time to time. Stop by and say hi.
