Google’s Perspective tool helps clean up those ugly internet comment sections

Why it matters to you

We’ve all rolled our eyes at online comments but we may be able to make the web a friendlier place with Perspective.

If you’re looking for a human cesspool, there is no better place to visit than the comment section of a YouTube video, a news article, or really, just about any anonymous public forum. But now, Google might have something of a solution. It’s called Perspective and it is a new technology from Google and Jigsaw (an Alphabet company focused on security) that employs machine learning to identify toxic comments. Once these comments are identified, publishers or users can start to weed them out.

According to a Google blog post announcement, 72 percent of American internet users have seen online harassment, and nearly 50 percent have experienced it themselves. “This problem doesn’t just impact online readers. News organizations want to encourage engagement and discussion around their content, but find that sorting through millions of comments to find those that are trolling or abusive takes a lot of money, labor, and time,” Google noted. “As a result, many sites have shut down comments altogether. But they tell us that isn’t the solution they want. We think technology can help.”

More: You can now pay YouTube to pin your pithy comments in live-stream chat rooms

So what exactly is this technology? The new technology looks into various comments and compares them to previous content that has been considered “toxic” by human reviewers. This allows for Perspective to assign a score to new comments, and as it is exposed to more and more information, it gets better at identifying the trash.

Once toxicity scores have been assigned, Perspective allows publishers to decide what to do with this information. “For example, a publisher could flag comments for its own moderators to review and decide whether to include them in a conversation. Or a publisher could provide tools to help their community understand the impact of what they are writing,” Google explained.

Already, a version of Perspective is being tested with the New York Times, where it is helping a team of human moderators sift through comments in a  more efficient manner. But moving forward, Perspective wants to do more. “[The technology] is about more than just improving comments,” Google concluded. “We hope we can help improve conversations online.”

Google’s Perspective tool helps clean up those ugly internet comment sections

Why it matters to you

We’ve all rolled our eyes at online comments but we may be able to make the web a friendlier place with Perspective.

If you’re looking for a human cesspool, there is no better place to visit than the comment section of a YouTube video, a news article, or really, just about any anonymous public forum. But now, Google might have something of a solution. It’s called Perspective and it is a new technology from Google and Jigsaw (an Alphabet company focused on security) that employs machine learning to identify toxic comments. Once these comments are identified, publishers or users can start to weed them out.

According to a Google blog post announcement, 72 percent of American internet users have seen online harassment, and nearly 50 percent have experienced it themselves. “This problem doesn’t just impact online readers. News organizations want to encourage engagement and discussion around their content, but find that sorting through millions of comments to find those that are trolling or abusive takes a lot of money, labor, and time,” Google noted. “As a result, many sites have shut down comments altogether. But they tell us that isn’t the solution they want. We think technology can help.”

More: You can now pay YouTube to pin your pithy comments in live-stream chat rooms

So what exactly is this technology? The new technology looks into various comments and compares them to previous content that has been considered “toxic” by human reviewers. This allows for Perspective to assign a score to new comments, and as it is exposed to more and more information, it gets better at identifying the trash.

Once toxicity scores have been assigned, Perspective allows publishers to decide what to do with this information. “For example, a publisher could flag comments for its own moderators to review and decide whether to include them in a conversation. Or a publisher could provide tools to help their community understand the impact of what they are writing,” Google explained.

Already, a version of Perspective is being tested with the New York Times, where it is helping a team of human moderators sift through comments in a  more efficient manner. But moving forward, Perspective wants to do more. “[The technology] is about more than just improving comments,” Google concluded. “We hope we can help improve conversations online.”

Can AI smart enough to play poker be weaponized without turning Terminator?

Last month, some of the world’s best Texas Hold’em poker players gathered at the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to take on an unusual opponent. Over the course of 20 days and 120,000 hands, they were utterly outmatched by an artificial intelligence known as Libratus.

This isn’t the first time that an AI has beaten humans in a test of wits, and it won’t be the last. Last year, Google’s DeepMind system beat champion Go player Lee Sedol in a high-profile series, and there are plans to teach AIs how to play Starcraft II.

More: IBM CEO Rometty joins calls to ensure that AI remains a positive force

However, these AIs aren’t being developed just to beat human players at games. The same groundwork that helps a computer excel at poker can be applied to all kinds of different scenarios. Right now, we’re seeing the capabilities of AIs that can think three moves ahead of their opponent — and soon, systems like these could be arbitrating matters of life and death.

Imperfect Information

Shortly after Libratus saw off its competition at the Rivers Casino, its creator, Carnegie Mellon professor Tuomas Sandholm, was interviewed about the project by Time. When he was asked about potential applications for the AI, he reeled off a list of “high stakes” possibilities including business negotiations, cybersecurity, and military strategy planning.

Libratus hit the headlines because of its ability to play poker, but it’s capable of much more than that. Sandholm didn’t spend twelve years of his life working on this project so that he could spot his friends’ bluffs when game night rolls around.

The real strength of Libratus is its capacity to figure out scenarios where information is either imperfect or incomplete. This is what sets the AI apart from the DeepMind implementation that beat Lee Sedol in Go last year. Unlike Go, a game where all information about the game state is known, Libratus had to contend with Poker, a game that revolves around incomplete information. The AI couldn’t know what cards other players had in their respective hands, and had to play around that restriction.

Sandholm described heads-up, no-limit Texas Hold’em as the “last frontier” among games that have been subjected to significant AI research. The fact that Libratus was so successful against high-level human players represents a benchmark for the problem-solving capacity of AIs working with imperfect information.

It’s no secret that AIs are getting smarter — exhibitions like last month’s high-stakes poker game are intended to publicize the most recent advances. AI has long been a touchstone for cutting-edge technology, and now there’s plenty of easily digestible evidence that points to how advanced work in this field has become. Now, we’re seeing the financial industry and the medical industry speak on how they can make these advances work for them, and they’re not alone.

The United States military is already deep in the process of establishing the best way to implement this kind of technology on the battlefield. It’s not a case of ‘if’; it’s a case of ‘how’.

Lieutenant Libratus

As it stands, the U.S. military is embroiled in a fierce discussion as to how best to use AI to wage war. Opinion is split between using the technology to aid and assist human operatives, and allowing for the creation of autonomous AI-controlled entities.

Libratus hit the headlines because it can play poker, but it’s capable of much more than that.

It’s easy to see why some are eager to pursue AI-controlled forces. On the surface, it’s a straightforward way of diminishing human casualties in combat operations. However, this type of technology must be seized from Pandora’s Box. Once it’s available to some, it’s quickly going to be adopted by all.

Whether you trust any country’s government to utilize AI-controlled forces ethically, it seems plainly obvious that allowing these weapons of war out into the open would result in heinous acts of a magnitude that we can’t even comprehend.

More: Apple will join Google, Microsoft, and IBM in the Partnership on AI

However, there’s also an argument to be made that someone, somewhere will implement this technology eventually. Ignoring advances for ethical reasons is perhaps naïve, if the results are going to end up in enemy hands regardless.

This dispute has come to be known as the Terminator conundrum, a turn of phrase that’s been used on several occasions by Paul J. Selva, the acting Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

NASA

“I don’t think it’s impossible that somebody will try to build a completely autonomous system,” said General Selva at a Military Strategy Forum held at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in August 2016. “And I’m not talking about something like a cruise missile or a smart torpedo or a mine, that requires a human to target it and release it, and it goes and finds its target. I’m talking about a wholly robotic system that decides whether or not — at the point of decision — it’s going to do lethal harm.”

Selva argued that it’s important that a set of conventions is established to govern this emerging form of warfare. He acknowledges that these rules will need to be iterated upon, and that there will always be entities that disregard any regulation — but without a baseline for fair usage, all bets are off.

It won’t be long before simple AI is used in warfare.

Many experts would agree that AI hasn’t yet reached the stage of sophistication required for ethical use in military operations. However, it won’t be long before simple AI can be used in warfare, even if the implementation is clumsy.

Without rules in place, there’s no way to differentiate between ethical usage, and clumsy usage. Establishing guidelines might require a dip into Pandora’s box, but you could argue that the alternative amounts to leaving the box wide open.

Advanced warfare requires advanced ethics

After Libratus dominated its opposition in Texas Hold’em, Sandholm told Time that before the contest, he thought that the AI had a “50-50 chance” to win. It doesn’t take one of the world’s best poker players to recognize those aren’t great odds.

US Army

Sandholm is likely playing up his self-doubt for the sake of the interview, but it certainly seems that he wasn’t completely confident that Libratus had victory within its grasp. That’s fine when the stakes are limited to his reputation, and the reputation of the university he represents. However, when talking about using AI on the battlefield, a 50-50 chance that everything goes to plan isn’t anywhere near good enough.

Libratus is an amazing accomplishment in the field of AI, but it’s also a reminder of how much work there is still to be done. The “imperfect information” that can impact the way a game of Texas Hold’em plays out is limited to the 52 cards in a standard deck; in combat operations, there are countless other known and unknown variables that come into play.

Once military implementation of AI becomes commonplace, it will be too late to start regulating its usage. It’s fortunate that there’s still work to be done before today’s leading AI is competent enough to answer to a commanding officer, because there’s plenty of legislative groundwork to be laid before that kind of practice can be considered ethically acceptable.

Once the military implementation of AI becomes commonplace, it will be too late to start regulating.

During the Military Strategy Forum mentioned earlier, General Selva noted that experts thought the creation of a wholly autonomous machine soldier was around a decade away. It’s perhaps relevant that when DeepMind beat Lee Sedol last year, the accomplishment came a decade earlier than expected, according to a report from MIT’s Technology Review.

Research into AI is progressing at a rate that’s surprising even to experts working in the field, and that’s great news. However, there’s a marked difference between useful progress, and technology that’s ready to do the job when lives are on the line.

Military implementation of AI will become a reality, and it’ll probably happen sooner than we expect. Now is the time to put guidelines in place, so we don’t run the risk of seeing these technologies abused once they’re advanced enough to be put in the line of fire.

Study: Accuracy of voice biometrics can diminish as we age

Why it matters to you

Biometrics are considered the one true alternative to passwords but nature may play a role in how effective voice biometrics can be.

The accuracy of detecting voice biometrics may decrease as we age according to new research from a fraud detection firm.

Pindrop presented its findings at the RSA security conference in San Francisco last week, where the firm demonstrated the existence of slight changes to the human voice’s speed and pitch over months and years. The changes are minute and wouldn’t be so obvious to our ears, but voice detection systems may be thrown off.

The researchers claimed that error rates in voice biometrics can double over a two-year period. As part of the research, principal research scientist Elie Khoury and the team studied Barack Obama’s daily addresses between 2009 and 2017 for changes in his speech patterns. They claim that his voice accuracy rating declined 23 percent over the eight years.

They further examined a two-year dataset of 122 different speakers, speaking English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, and Italian. The team found that error rates typically doubled over the two years. They also found female voices aren’t prone to as much change as male voices. Of all the demographics, men over 60 experienced the most change in the voices.

More: Australia wants to replace passports with facial-recognition technology

Aging has been deemed the main cause of the changes. We use up to 100 muscles when we speak and all muscles become weaker as we get older. “[The] vocal cords and cartilages of the larynx also change as we age,” said Khoury. Emotions, health problems, and stress can also contribute to variations in speed and pitch that can reduce biometric accuracy.

There are a number of implications that these changes in our voices could have. Numerous forms of biometrics are often seen as replacements for traditional passwords. Voice biometrics is one of these and so if a system such as phone banking, for example, uses voice authentication, it may fail.

Pindrop’s researchers also carried out an eight-month survey on customers that use phone banking. They found that 48 percent of people only called the service once over the eight-month period. In theory, a voice authentication system may eventually fail to recognize these customers over time.

Terry Nelms, director of research at Pindrop, said these findings provided additional reasons for businesses and institutions to employ multi-factor authentication rather than relying on one biometric method.

How a rugged smartphone case helps X Games athletes train better

Why it matters to you

If LifeProof’s rugged smartphone cases are good enough for X Games athletes like Kevin Rolland and Bobby Brown, they’ll probably be good enough for you too.

When you take a look at the rundown of current sponsors for the X Games, you’ll find a number of companies that you would probably expect to be a part of the action sports extravaganza. For instance, GoPro, Jeep, and Monster Energy all seem like a natural fit for the X Games audience, and even Polaris, Harley Davidson, and AT&T don’t seem especially out of place. Also on the list is LifeProof, a company that might not immediately leap to mind when you think of extreme sports competitions. But dig a little deeper and you’ll discover why the brand has become a favorite amongst professional athletes who rely on their smartphones while training.

More: Hellfire heated gloves first to provide all-day warming

As one of the leaders in the rugged smartphone case market, LifeProof has created some of the most durable options for keeping our iPhones and Android devices safe in extreme conditions. The company’s line of Frē and Nüüd cases are water and dust proof, while also providing protection from snow and ice – not to mention accidental drops – without adding a lot of undue bulk. That makes them excellent choices not only for those of us who put our phones through hell during our own outdoor adventures, but for the professional athletes who take part in the X Games too.

Recently we had a chance to chat with a number of those athletes while attending X Games Aspen. What we discovered is that they’re as attached to their smartphones as the rest of us and their mobile devices often play a crucial role in their day-to-day training as well. Unsurprisingly, that makes a rugged smartphone case somewhat of a necessity, both on and off the slopes. It turns out, if you’re pulling off high-flying, aerial stunts with skis or a snowboard strapped to your feet, you just might need some extra protection for your fragile gadgets.

Big air freestyle skier Bobby Brown, who has won eight X Games medals throughout his career, says that he needs to have his phone with him constantly, even while on the slopes. He tells Digital Trends, “We’re in the outdoors all the time and we don’t always know what the weather is going to be like. But with a good case I can take my phone out of my pocket at any time, even when its dumping snow, and not have to worry about my iPhone frying out.”

Brown’s comments were echoed by French halfpipe skier Kevin Rolland, who has not only 10 X Games medals to his name, but a bronze medal from the Sochi Olympics as well. He told us “I can ski with my phone in my hand and take great photos while training. But if you fall it’s okay. Your phone will be fine.” Those images are extremely popular on social media, which plays an important role for today’s action sports athlete. Rolland says, “There aren’t a lot of channels or media outlets that allow us to interact directly with fans, but social media allows us to do just that. When I’m out there, I’m using my phone a lot, especially to post on Facebook and Instagram.”

LifeProof

Christy Prior – who competed for New Zealand at the Sochi Olympics – was in Aspen to attend the X Games in a non-athletic capacity. Currently sidelined with an injury, she’s working on getting healthy and back on the pro circuit as soon as she can. The kiwi snowboarder was still able to weigh in on this topic, however. “I always carry my phone with me while training. It allows me to stay in touch with my coach, keep up with friends, and listen to music while I’m riding,” Prior says. She also admits that without a good case she’d be shelling out a lot of money on a regular basis. “We obviously train on snow, so there is always moisture and ice to deal with. And since we’re falling and crashing with our phones a lot, LifeProof helps me to not have to buy a new phone every month.”

Slopestyle and Big Air snowboarder Sebastien Toutant tells Digital Trends that he’s been using a LifeProof case for a year now, and really appreciates what it brings to the table. “It’s crazy how much we use our phones,” he says, referring to himself and other X Games athletes. “From summer to winter, its probably the best tool you can have.” Dubbed “Seb Toots” on the action sports circuit, Toutant is a popular figure on social media, which naturally influences the way he uses his phone on the slopes. “I’m always taking photos, shooting video, and posting them on Instagram or Twitter. But with a LifeProof case my phone doesn’t freeze up and I don’t have to worry about cracking it when I accidentally drop it off the chairlift either.”

LifeProof

Darrin Mees was in Aspen to take part in the first ever Snow BikeCross event, which is a race involving motorized vehicles that are a blend of dirt bikes and snowmobiles. He doesn’t have the time to take out his phone in the heat of the moment of a race or training session, but appreciates what a LifeProof case brings to his day-to-day life. As someone who constantly works and plays in the outdoors, he tells us, “My phone would have been destroyed on many occasions if it weren’t for this case. It’s a real lifesaver.” With a young family back at home, his smartphone is the key to staying connected with his wife and two daughters while on the road, making it an important piece of equipment indeed.

Obviously, not everyone is an extreme sports athlete, or needs to have a case that can survive a fall from a chairlift. But for those who do, its nice to know that there are some options available to protect our mobile devices when we’re in the outdoors. Keeping that in mind, it makes perfect sense that LifeProof is among the sponsors for the X Games, and that so many of the athletes who compete there rely on its products in both their personal and professional lives.

MacBook Pro vs. Surface Book vs. Razer Blade: What’s best for video editing?

Video editors looking to take their craft out of the house have a glut of choices when it comes to stylish, slim laptops. Apple’s MacBook Pro is a perennial favorite, but recent changes to its connectivity and battery life has hurt its reputation among the power users who relied on the system. Razer’s Blade has been revised a few times, and packs in the latest gaming hardware — a good look for video editing. Finally, Microsoft’s Surface Book with Performance Base has splashed onto the scene, offering up competitive performance and a versatile form factor.

But the question remains, which is the best for video editing and encoding? To find out, David from The Unlockr faced them off in a test that replicated his real-world working conditions. He took 4K footage, did some light color correction, and then times the process to encode to both 4K and 1080p for YouTube.

More: Want Hollywood results on a budget? Here’s the best free video editing software

Of course, video encoding is an incredibly demanding process that stresses basically every component in your system. The processor and RAM are working overtime, and even your drives are going to be sweating trying to keep up. In order to help leverage the extra computing power in the GPU, Nvidia users can use CUDA acceleration to help speed up the process. As a result, the more powerful GTX 1060 and high-wattage, quad-core, eight-thread CPU in the Blade pushes it to a strong lead over both the Surface Book with Performance Base and MacBook Pro 15 with Touch Bar.

Of course, encoding performance isn’t the only factor when it comes to video editing, as the video mentions. The Macbook’s amazing display and Touch Bar may be a good fit for people already used to the MacOS ecosystem. Likewise, the Surface Book’s 3:2 aspect ratio is a great layout for video editing, and the sensitive touch screen could allow for easy touch-up work.

LG G5 review re-do: The worst Android flagship of 2016 isn’t that bad

MWC is just beginning, and LG is slated to show off the G6. Since we’re just about to look ahead, I’m taking a look back at the LG G5. This phone was a flop, but now that the price has dropped, it’s worth taking a look at again. Well, not too close a look.

I’m Michael Fisher, better known to the wider world as MrMobile, and if I had to recommend a good camera phone for under $400, I’ve got a new contender. Watch this video and revisit the good (just the camera, which is really good), and what was not (pretty much everything else).

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Bose QC35: Wireless, noise-canceling, and near-perfect

If you fly a lot — or maybe even just a little — you need a good pair of noice-canceling headphones. My new go-to cans absolutely are the Bose QC35.

First Serenity Caldwell, then MrMobile, and now Modern Dad. At this point I think it’s safe to say the Bose QC35 wireless noise-canceling headphones have reached a trifecta here.

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I’ve been using Bose buds on planes for years. I’ve burned through two sets of the QC20 earbuds. They’re great, too. But I wanted something wireless. And I wanted something more comfortable for those REALLY long flights.

The QC35 fit that bill. They’re wireless with Bluetooth for use with your phone. They’ve got a cable and airplane adapter for when you want to use them for in-flight movies. And I’ve yet to kill the battery at an inopportune time. (20 hours is more than enough to get me from one end of the world to another.)

There’s a companion Android app that you might be tempted to skip — but don’t. Bose is using this to push firmware updates. They take a few minutes — like, 20 — to download and apply. But it’s great to see a product like this get some fairly regular upkeep.

The only real negative I have here is that my ears can get a little sweaty after a couple hours inside the cans. Is that the headphones’ fault, or poor design of the user? Pick your poison.

See at Amazon

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Everything you need to know about Sprint’s Unlimited Freedom plan

A complete breakdown of Sprint’s Unlimited Freedom plan and everything else you can get when you sign up for service.

In the United States, there are a lot of companies that can get you and your phone online, but most people use one of the four biggest: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon. Choosing between them can be difficult. Your first priority should be what service works best in the places you spend your time. It’s not worth saving $10 a month if the service is bad. Once you have that sorted, you can look at what each company has to offer and the prices they charge for it.

More: Which unlimited plan should you buy?

Let’s take a look at Sprint to see what they can give you and what it will cost.

Note: The details of this plan are current as of February 20, 2017.

Sprint Unlimited Freedom plan details

• Unlimited talk, text, and data (with certain restrictions)
• Unlimited data for streaming video up to 1080p
• Unlimited data for gaming up to 8Mbps
• Unlimited data for streaming music up to 1.5Mbps
• 10GB high-speed mobile hotspot with VPN and P2P support
• Add a tablet with unlimited data for $25 per month

Note: These features apply only to new accounts.

Sprint’s definition of Unlimited Data means that after you use 23 GB in a single month, your service can be slowed down if you’re in a congested area. You’ll hear the word throttled used here but you need to know that it’s only a temporary deprioritization of your data connection when you’re in a busy area. It may not happen at all depending on how many other customers are using the same towers.

Buying a phone and getting exactly the data plan and extras you want is far easier on Sprint than every other company we’ve tried.

Sprint’s Unlimited Freedom plan applies only to new customers who are also buying (outright purchases or financing) or leasing phones from Sprint at the time of purchase, and credit approval is required. There is an activation fee of up to $30 per line and the Unlimited Freedom Plan requires eBilling. Current customers can call 1-866-275-1411 with questions about changing their plan.

Sprint offers a 14-day satisfaction guarantee and devices purchased on installments are subject to a $350 early termination fee.

Additional lines can be added to a Sprint Unlimited Freedom plan. Every line has the same benefits outlined above and requires an equipment purchase. Here is a pricing breakdown.

• One line of service is $50
• Two lines of service is $90
• Three lines of service is $90
• Four lines of service is $90

Sprint Unlimited Freedom plan add-ons

Sprint’s Unlimited Freedom plan is a no-frills option at a low price. There are few extras and add-ons available if you want international options or a few extra features.

• Free Sprint Open World Winter Promo: Free calls, texts and high-speed data from Canada, Mexico and 25 other countries in Latin America until March 31, 2017
• Mexico-Canada Plus: Unlimited calls and texts from the U.S. to Mexico and Canada, unlimited messaging to 180 countries and discounted international calling rates from the U.S. for $5 per month
• Upgrade your phone every 12 months with a $5 monthly charge

Sprint also offers trials and discounts on some premium services for new customers. Spotify Premium has a 30-day trial available, as does Lookout and Sprint Family Locator. After the trial period, normal monthly rates apply.

Sprint also will offer “unlimited access to exclusive artist content not available anywhere else” now that the company has bought one-third of Tidal, though exact details on this aren’t yet available.

See at Sprint

Exploring portability with room-scale VR

Does a laptop make your VR rig portable?

The first VR-Ready laptops barely deserved to be named as such. The hulking desktop replacements were difficult to take with you anywhere and didn’t really have the battery life necessary to enjoy the experience. Times have changed, and now several manufacturers have thin, light laptops that can easily travel with you and handle VR with no problem.

This leaves a lot of people planning their VR playspaces with a fun new question — how easy is it to pack up and take your VR setup somewhere new? Can a VR setup become the center of a party when it’s not at your house?

Read more at VR Heads!