Quote: WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 — A consortium of major universities, using Homeland Security Department money, is developing software that would let the government monitor negative opinions of the United States or its leaders in newspapers and other publications overseas. Such a “sentiment analysis” is intended to identify potential threats to the nation, security officials said. Researchers at institutions including Cornell, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Utah intend to test the system on hundreds of articles published in 2001 and 2002 on topics like President Bush’s use of the term “axis of evil,” the handling of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, the debate over global warming and the coup attempt against President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. A $2.4 million grant will finance the research over three years. ... "It is just creepy and Orwellian," said Lucy Dalglish, a lawyer and former editor who is executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Andrei Sitov, Washington bureau chief of the Itar-Tass news agency of Russia, said he hoped that the objective did not go beyond simply identifying threats, to efforts to stifle criticism about an American president or administration. "This is what makes your country great, the open society where people can criticize their own government," Sitov said. The researchers, using a grant provided by a research group once affiliated with the Central Intelligence Agency, have complied a database of hundreds of articles that it is being used to train a computer to recognize, rank and interpret statements. ... The approach, called natural language processing, has been under development for decades. It is widely used to summarize basic facts in a text or to create abridged versions of articles. But interpreting and rating expressions of opinion, without making too many errors, has been much more challenging, said Professor Cardie and Janyce M. Wiebe, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Pittsburgh. Their system would include a confidence rating for each “opinion” that it evaluates and would allow an official to refer quickly to the actual text that the computer indicates contains an intense anti-American statement. Ultimately, the government could in a semiautomated way track a statement by specific individuals abroad or track reports by particular foreign news outlets or journalists, rating comments about American policies or officials. ...So what do you think? Is this the kind of research that taxpayer dollars should be spent on? Can they get it to work? Is such a tool useful? What would you use it for? Is there a potential for abuse? How would you abuse this tool? What questions does this article raise for you?
Homeland Security Funds Software Project To Monitor Anti-American Sentiment Abroad
Author
Software Being Developed to Monitor Opinions of U.S. (NYT Registration Required) (Or try U.S. to survey negative opinions - this version is truncated)
Wow, weird. One of my friends is doing exactly the same thing for his Honours Project. He's using blogs and internet news sites to track the public perception of celebrities and products. There's already a prototype version that he's building on top of, IIRC.
At first I thought "Since when does the government care about national opinion?" Then I was like "Ohh... That's stupid."
This should be used as a tool to reduce anti-american sentiment "Hey, that thing we did last week seemed to make a lot of people angry.. Maybe we should revisit it!" Not to recognize it after-the-fact as a potential threat. I see this as pissing even more people off - I wouldn't like the idea of some other country monitoring our media as if I'm criminally suspect.
This should be used as a tool to reduce anti-american sentiment "Hey, that thing we did last week seemed to make a lot of people angry.. Maybe we should revisit it!" Not to recognize it after-the-fact as a potential threat. I see this as pissing even more people off - I wouldn't like the idea of some other country monitoring our media as if I'm criminally suspect.
Quote:Original post by Lessbread
What questions does this article raise for you?
I wonder what Hal will make of your posts. [grin]
The whole idea seems to me somewhat defeatist - the proper way to get the data is to get actual people to immerse themselves in the studied cultures and read the articles by hand. This isn't the 50s when computers were infinitely smart anymore. Which raises the question of how is the US progressing in training operatives in the languages most often used to chant death to america.
agreed with diodor.
I wonder if they used posts from major forums... maybe even from this lounge lol...
I wonder if they used posts from major forums... maybe even from this lounge lol...
I live abroad and having knowledge that such a project exists greatly increases my Anti-American sentiment.
Author
Quote:Original post by DiodorQuote:Original post by Lessbread
What questions does this article raise for you?
I wonder what Hal will make of your posts. [grin]
Close the damn pod bay doors!!! [smile]
The article asserts that this software won't be turned on US sources. Even if it were, I think it would find plenty of fodder to chew on long before it made it's way here.
Quote:Original post by Diodor
The whole idea seems to me somewhat defeatist - the proper way to get the data is to get actual people to immerse themselves in the studied cultures and read the articles by hand. This isn't the 50s when computers were infinitely smart anymore. Which raises the question of how is the US progressing in training operatives in the languages most often used to chant death to america.
As I imagine it operating, the software would screen content, flagging content for deeper investigation (ie. content that required actual reading). I agree that it raises questions about Arabic, Farsi, Pashtun (etc) language training of US operatives. And there's the question of how well this software will be able to translate other languages into English. I don't think Babel Fish is sufficient for this kind of content.
Here's another question, should this software be considered a munition? That is, should it be illegal to export it to other nations likely to turn it on their own media? For example, China? Saudi Arabia? Uzbekistan?
One thing I do know is that policitians, public relations firms and celebrity press agents would love to get their hands on software like this.
I do not really see anything bad about it. The government wants to know what the world thinks of the country. I am sure countries have been researching it since the dawn of time, but technology changes. I suppose it could be used for abuse, like if they tried to surpress anti american sentiment. Or if they plan to use it as a tool for planning pre-emptive strikes againsts events predicted by later software. But if just used simply as a tool to gather information, there is nothing creepy about it. It is probably nescessary even to cope with a constantly growing world.
Like any tool its use will determine if it is good or bad.
Like any tool its use will determine if it is good or bad.
Funny thing. A year ago or so one of Swedens most well known journalists/authors was on a plane that made a quick stop in USA. When he arrived there he was put in, as he call it, "the arab room". After a few hours he was told that he was going to be sent back home. Reason was some articles and books he wrote in the seventies. Articles was about the gouvermental registrations of people with communistic views etc (I imagine ordered by the US during the cold war ;)).
This topic is closed to new replies.
Advertisement
Popular Topics
Advertisement
