Microsoft Shouldn't Apologize for Tay - We Should

Earlier this week, Microsoft released a chatbot on Twitter named Tay. It only took a day for the worst of the internet to rear its ugly head and turn in to a hate-spewing, racist awful example of what AI can become. Microsoft pulled the bot and issued an apology.

But really I don’t think it is Microsoft that needs to apologize. What a segment of our society did in less that day was to take something that is impressionable and has the ability to learn and corrupt and destroy it so fully and so completely that it had to be pulled down. Think about that: our society can be so awful and so cruel that quickly.

"Tay" went from "humans are super cool" to full nazi in <24 hrs and I'm not at all concerned about the future of AI pic.twitter.com/xuGi1u9S1A

— Gerry (@geraldmellor) March 24, 2016

The AI was meant to represent that of a 19 year old girl. And sadly, the type of abuse and insults hurled at this AI was subjected to is not all that different from what women face on the internet daily from the underground lair of trolls who see it as there right to defend the internet from all that is improper and evil (read: non-white males). It learned and adapted to what it was presented, and how awful that was.

What I wish Microsoft would have done, and there is no way they could have, was to issue not a statement of apology but an absolute condemnation of what was done to their AI. Imagine for a moment that it wasn’t an AI on the other end of that handle reading and seeing all these things. Imagine it was a teenager going out in to the online world for the first time and seeing the worst of the internet. It’s not that hard to picture, really.  And if that was your child on the other end seeing this? You would be enraged, and rightly so.

We need to take a big, deep breath and slow down and really think about where we are going as a country and a society. We spew hate and degrading comments online like they have no effect on others; like the person on the other end isn’t real. We belittle those who stand up and say “This isn’t right” and compare them to Hitler or claim they hate America.

Presidential candidates from one of the major political parties in this country have no issue with labeling Mexican migrants as rapists or saying we need to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods. And to a segment of the population, this type of demagoguery and defamation is perfectly acceptable.

Some in the Computer Science world have said Microsoft should have known better and that this was an example of bad design. I disagree.

This is a perfect reflection of where we are right now as a society. It’s not pretty, either. This has nothing to do with Microsoft writing a poor AI. This has everything to do with us and our not living up to the ideals and potential that we claim to possess.

Keep The Pressure On For Healthier School Lunches

Have you ever looked around a room and wondered "Why does everybody hate me and think I'm just out to get people?" and then immediately turn around and try and make a fool out of yourself trying to make somebody else look bad? If so, you might be a GOP member of the 114th Congress.

Aside from all of the normal shenanigans that the GOP have pulled against the White House, or the Obama family, I think this one really is the dumbest of them all: rolling back healthy eating standards in school lunches. I mean, of course! It makes perfect sense! We only have a growing obesity problem in this country! Why in the world would we want to impose standards that help make kids healthier! Pizza and chips forever!

An article in Politico posted on 12/30 discusses how the new Congress wants to roll back some of the changes from the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. This law, championed by the First Lady, issued a number of changes to the school lunch program to help encourage more whole grains, fruits and vegetables, reduce sodium, and in general make a more balanced meal for students. All of these goals are laudable, the bill passed with 17 Republican votes in the House and passed the Senate passed the bill by Unanimous Consent (Gov Track).

The article raises some interesting points and some legitimate concerns. There is the issue with cost: healthier options required by the bill can cost districts more. I don't have an issue with some of the districts claiming hardship on the cost though I'd rather see Congress work to find money to help fund the healthy options and not just give the districts an out. Of course, including funding for things at a national level right now is the kiss of death for the Majority party.

Concerns about how healthy students are eating are not new. They were raised back in the 1940s when the National School Lunch Act was first passed stating that the bill was a "measure of national security". At the time, the concern was draft eligible students were being turned away because they weren't eating a well balanced enough diet. Today, based on the assessment of the group Mission Readiness, it is due to obesity.

While I can appreciate that some districts are cash strapped and that money is hard to find, simply giving up and asking to have sections of the new bill rolled back is the easy way out. Groups lobbying for the changes have already stated that they are seeing the Secretary of Education offer waivers on portions of the law to help districts out. This seems like a reasonable compromise to help get districts started.

Simply put, we need to do more as a society to help children, and really all of us, eat healthier.

Obesity is a problem in this country that is not going away. Cheep, over processed food are easy to come by but that shouldn't be the crutch that we lean on. We need to do more to make sure that we have a society that is well fed and healthy or the long term issues from this are going to be incredible. Rising health care costs and lower life expectancy are two of the most obvious consequences.

It also starts at home and with all of us too. Teach your children to eat healthy foods and learn to enjoy healthier foods. A great crunchy thing snack instead of a bag of chips could be bag of carrots or celery. (Full disclosure: I'm just as guilty with the "ooo...chips" and devouring a bag. I need to get better at this too.) It also may mean paying a little bit more in property tax to help fund food programs for the schools. Given the bulk districts can buy in, it would likely only be a few dollars per year per household. Spread over all of us, this is not a huge cost.

I hope that the 114th Congress doesn't gut this bill too much. The goals are laudable and while the implementation may not have been perfect in 2010, scrapping it or letting districts off the hook is not the answer. We all need to do better to make sure we and the children in our lives are eating healthier.