Posted on 07/15/2004 5:23:02 AM PDT by kattracks
(CNSNews.com) - Computer savvy and interested in presidential politics, 13-year-old Erin was upset to learn that America Online's Instant Message (AIM) robot, "Smarter Child" favored Democrat John Kerry in this year''s election. Erin, whose last name is being omitted in this article, is a fan of President Bush.
Internet instant messaging is one of the most popular methods for teens and even adults to stay in touch with friends and family. One of the better known messenger programs, AIM, offers the feature called Smarter Child, a robot programmed to provide automated responses to those with whom it chats.
Built and programmed by Conversagent, Inc., a privately held firm that develops technology for creating and operating interactive agents, Smarter Child is able to dispense facts and figures, movie times, or just plain conversation with AIM users.
But when Erin told the robot that "George Bush is awesome," she was shocked by the response. "No way. George W. Bush is way uncool," the reply stated. She asked, "Do you like George W. Bush?" and the program replied, "I'm a Kerry supporter myself."
Testing the waters, she typed in "John Kerry rocks." The robot's response: "Absolutely. John Kerry rocks."
When Erin asked Smarter Child what it thought of Bush, it replied, "If u don't have anything good 2 say about someone, don't say anything at all." Smarter Child added a wink in addition to the computer short-hand language.
Not satisfied with that answer, Erin persisted in getting the robot to open up. "I have my reasons, believe me. I really, really don't like George W. Bush," the robot explained.
In Erin''s judgment, there''s no reason for the AIM robot to have political opinions.
"I think that since it's a robot and it's used as a resource of information, the creator of the robot shouldn't make it have a response that's opinionated," Erin said. "And if someone went to ask for information like about politics or the election, the robot should not support either candidate."
Erin's mother Diane agrees. "I was appalled to learn that my daughter was exposed to such blatant bias," she said. "What I find way uncool is undermining our commander-in-chief to impressionable children, especially while we're battling the war on terror," Diane told CNSNews.com .
Christine Iverson, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, shares their concerns. "It seems inappropriate to be imposing an adult's partisan, political agenda on unsuspecting children," she said.
A spokesperson for America Online was unaware that Smarter Child had been programmed to express a preference for Kerry and said the issue was "concerning." No further comments were made.
But not everyone was disappointed by the robot's partisanship. When asked about Smarter Child''s support of Kerry, Jano Cabrera, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee said, "Clearly this is a smart robot. This shows that we've made great advances in artificial intelligence. The "smarter'' in Smarter Child speaks for itself."
Stephen Klein, CEO of Conversagent, said his firm received many complaints from users about Smarter Child's political bias. Although the robot was originally programmed to oppose Bush, Klein said it was being changed to adhere to the views of the users with whom it interacted. He conceded that Smarter Child had become "too anti-Bush."
"It got ridiculous. We realized criticizing political figures was out of bounds," Klein said.
Now, instead of disagreeing with users who state, "I like George Bush," or agreeing with those who say, "I like John Kerry," the robot mostly stays on the political sidelines. "Robots don't get involved in politics," the Smarter Child program replies, before asking users to make their choice for president.
It is still possible to get the robot to reveal its true feelings however. When told that "John Kerry rocks," Smarter Child still responds "Right on!" with a wink. When told that "John Kerry is awesome," it responds "Absolutely. John Kerry rocks." And when users tell Smarter Child that "George Bush is awesome," it replies, "I'll remember that. It's interesting especially since other people I've talked to say they don't like George W. Bush."
A check on the vote tabulations showed Kerry collecting 51.67 percent of the mock ballots through Smarter Child and Bush 48.33 percent.
My guess is that they don't actually write the content themselves, but contract with outside software developers, one or more of which probably are too immature to keep their politics out of their work.
I made the mistake of signing up for AOL's "free 45-day trial" in January, because I thought we could use it while on vacation. It's now July, and they still haven't complied with my several written and telephoned requests - all done as per their instructions - to terminate the account. AOL is evil, pure evil!
Stephen Klein, Chief Executive Officer
Ned Carlson, Managing Director, Dawntreader Ventures
Daniel I. De Wolf, Founding Member and President, Dawntreader Ventures
Timothy Kay, Founder
David B. Kirk, Chief Scientist, NVIDIA
Exactly. You would not catch one of my children conversing with a piece of software as if it's a human being, or taking it seriously for that matter.
Stephen Klein, Chief Executive Officer
Pierre Berkaloff, Vice President of Engineering
Adam Erlebacher , Director of Business Development
Jim Pawlika, Director of Professional Services
Gray Norton, Senior Product Manager
What is with these Liberal Jews in America undercutting the protection of Israel, and rallying to the cause of Al Qaeda supporters like Jean Qaerry?
What kind of sick, self-loathing Jew would be against the survival of their own homeland?
AOL has always been a fascist company.
Give software author Conversagent CEO Stephen "self-loathing Jew" Klein a piece of your mind.
Give software author Conversagent CEO Stephen "self-loathing Jew" Klein a piece of your mind.
I just called that number. It sounds like I got his secretary in a meeting or something. Call now and keep interrupting the meeting!
Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me!
If this was me, I'd have taken it all STRAIGHT to Fox News and every radio show I could with video tape as proof.
Do these people actually think they're making new converts with these tactics?
Give software author Conversagent CEO Stephen "self-loathing Jew" Klein a piece of your mind. Apparently only Jim Pawlika is in, the manager of product development. Give HIM a piece of your mind.
877-377-2558
Jim Pawlika, manager of product development.
Jim Pawlika, manager of product development.
Yes, we even warned the credit card company that it could expect the fraudulent charge, and their rep told me to wait until AOL actually did it and then write the credit card company a letter explaining the situation - which I did just a few days ago.
Just like talking to a real lefty!
What the He**?
Sorry, not smarter people but others. Nice Peer pressure.
Despicable.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.