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2014/06/05 13:46:37
Subject: US Secret Service want 'Sarcasm Detector' for Twitter
The US Secret Service is seeking a Twitter sarcasm detector.
The agency has put out a work tender looking for a software system to analyse social media data.
The software should have, among other things, the "ability to detect sarcasm and false positives".
A spokesman for the service said it currently used the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Twitter analytics and needed its own, adding: "We aren't looking solely to detect sarcasm."
The Washington Post quoted Ed Donovan as saying: "Our objective is to automate our social media monitoring process. Twitter is what we analyse.
"This is real-time stream analysis. The ability to detect sarcasm and false positives is just one of 16 or 18 things we are looking at."
Prism controversy
The tender was put out earlier this week on the US government's Federal Business Opportunities website.
It sets out the objectives of automating social media monitoring and "synthesising large sets of social media data".
Specific requirements include "audience and geographic segmentation" and analysing "sentiment and trend".
The software also has to have "compatibility with Internet Explorer 8". The browser was released more than five years ago.
The agency does not detail the purpose of the analysis but does set out its mission, which includes "preserving the integrity of the economy and protecting national leaders and visiting heads of state and government".
The US has been under intense pressure on surveillance in the wake of revelations by Ed Snowden, the fugitive former technical worker for the CIA.
Last year he leaked details of the US National Security Agency's Prism scheme, which could access detailed records of individual smartphone and internet activity.
His documents alleged the NSA had access on a massive scale to individual chat logs, stored data, voice traffic, file transfers and social networking data of individuals.
Why is this stupid? For an agency that must respond to threats made against political figures I am sure a program that could assist in determining the legitimacy of potential threats online would save the agency, and country, a lot of money.
2014/06/05 16:52:20
Subject: US Secret Service want 'Sarcasm Detector' for Twitter
While watching thei nternet for suspicious material the first consideration is to install a simple word search that flags certain types of conversation.
This will still flag up too much data to filter for agents to look at, so they need improved searches to strip away stuff not of interest to find the things that are.
Sarcasm would be detectable in some instances in context from earlier posts, the structure of language used, what is quoted and how.
It is not unreasonable to try and program these parameters to weed out a portion of suspect sarcastic messages found so agents time is better used.
n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.
It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion.
2014/06/05 17:44:51
Subject: US Secret Service want 'Sarcasm Detector' for Twitter
While watching thei nternet for suspicious material the first consideration is to install a simple word search that flags certain types of conversation.
This will still flag up too much data to filter for agents to look at, so they need improved searches to strip away stuff not of interest to find the things that are.
Sarcasm would be detectable in some instances in context from earlier posts, the structure of language used, what is quoted and how.
It is not unreasonable to try and program these parameters to weed out a portion of suspect sarcastic messages found so agents time is better used.
Up to a point.
Problem here is that twitter only contains 140 at most per tweet... getting context would be... challenging. As a software developer, even I would have a hard time coding decision support routines to identify sarcasm. At the most, they'll only be able to use a repository of obvious sarcasms to filter out the "noise" and simply flag suspected tweets.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2014/06/05 17:45:18
Live Ork, Be Ork. or D'Ork!
2014/06/05 17:58:39
Subject: Re:US Secret Service want 'Sarcasm Detector' for Twitter
I do find the idea ludacris that a software can be written to detect nuances in the English languange such as saracasm.
This.
That's why I said the IDEA is good. The concept of being able to filter "noise" would be great. The problem, like the above, coding it and then also coding it so that the system doesn't basically create a back door communication style hidden in the sarcasm filter.
And since I find the possibility of being able to program something that advanced right now I called it a stupid idea under the surface. Granted, I'm not a programmer and computers aren't my specialty so my opinion means dooky
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2014/06/05 18:07:04
Subject: Re:US Secret Service want 'Sarcasm Detector' for Twitter
Hope it takes into account past twitter history of an individual. Base line of the program should be fun to see. As in who they base it off
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2014/06/05 18:12:23
Subject: Re:US Secret Service want 'Sarcasm Detector' for Twitter
Jihadin wrote: Hope it takes into account past twitter history of an individual. Base line of the program should be fun to see. As in who they base it off
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2014/06/05 18:22:10
Subject: US Secret Service want 'Sarcasm Detector' for Twitter
The centre of a massive brood chamber, heaving and pulsating.
I think it says a lot about what a lost art sarcasm is when the US secret service is writing software to recognize it.
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2014/06/05 18:31:13
Subject: US Secret Service want 'Sarcasm Detector' for Twitter
Human beings have a hard time accurately detecting sarcasm on the internet. What possible hope could a computer program have?
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2014/06/06 15:47:26
Subject: US Secret Service want 'Sarcasm Detector' for Twitter
squidhills wrote: Human beings have a hard time accurately detecting sarcasm on the internet. What possible hope could a computer program have?
The year is 1961.
"What the feth? Can you believe Mr. 'Camelot' over here? Wants to put a man on the moon? Humans have a hard enough time traveling between cities and he wants to go to the moon?"
2014/06/06 17:16:10
Subject: US Secret Service want 'Sarcasm Detector' for Twitter
I'm pretty sure that if we can't tell if someone's being sarcastic or not over text, then no automated system that doesn't involve installing privacy invading sensors on every internet capable device on the planet can.
squidhills wrote: Human beings have a hard time accurately detecting sarcasm on the internet. What possible hope could a computer program have?
The year is 1961.
"What the feth? Can you believe Mr. 'Camelot' over here? Wants to put a man on the moon? Humans have a hard enough time traveling between cities and he wants to go to the moon?"
Getting to the moon and back is simply a matter of strategically allocated thrust, a good grasp of orbital mechanics, properly maintained life support, and a sufficiently motivated crew.
Detecting social cues through systems without the proper sensors without giving a massive number of false positives (which even today give tons of false positives) is something we can't even begin to theorize to any scientifically acceptable degree.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2014/06/06 17:32:24
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2014/06/06 17:30:57
Subject: US Secret Service want 'Sarcasm Detector' for Twitter
Kain wrote: is something we can't even begin to theorize to any scientifically acceptable degree.
It's the US government They don't care about your silly science!
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2014/06/06 17:38:10
Subject: US Secret Service want 'Sarcasm Detector' for Twitter
Kain wrote: I'm pretty sure that if we can't tell if someone's being sarcastic or not over text, then no automated system that doesn't involve installing privacy invading sensors on every internet capable device on the planet can.
squidhills wrote: Human beings have a hard time accurately detecting sarcasm on the internet. What possible hope could a computer program have?
The year is 1961.
"What the feth? Can you believe Mr. 'Camelot' over here? Wants to put a man on the moon? Humans have a hard enough time traveling between cities and he wants to go to the moon?"
Getting to the moon and back is simply a matter of strategically allocated thrust, properly maintained life support, and a sufficiently motivated crew.
Detecting social cues through systems without the proper sensors without giving a massive number of false positives (which even today give tons of false positives) is something we can't even begin to theorize to any scientifically acceptable degree.
Exactly. We rely on a lot of cues to detect sarcasm in verbal speech (tone, emphasis of certain words, etc) apart from what words are said. When it comes to text, the only thing we have to work with is the text. If the poster uses emoticons, it can help show their intent (one of the reasons they caught on in the first place,actually). But if a post is just bare text? How do we determine if it is or isn't sarcasm? We can try to look at earlier posts by the same person, but anyone who has looked through OT enough knows that's a hopeless cause. OT's resident irreverant funnyman, Kronk, has made serious posts in serious threads before. I've seen people I'd dismissed as reactionary blowhards make posts with nuance and reasoned arguments. No computer is going to be able to use past posts as any kind of reliable indicator about present intentions, for the reason that the people who would be programming the computer can't figure out if a post is sarcasm or not, either.
Emperor's Eagles (undergoing Chapter reorganization)
Caledonian 95th (undergoing regimental reorganization)
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2014/06/06 17:43:22
Subject: US Secret Service want 'Sarcasm Detector' for Twitter
squidhills wrote: Human beings have a hard time accurately detecting sarcasm on the internet. What possible hope could a computer program have?
The year is 1961.
"What the feth? Can you believe Mr. 'Camelot' over here? Wants to put a man on the moon? Humans have a hard enough time traveling between cities and he wants to go to the moon?"
Getting to the moon and back is simply a matter of strategically allocated thrust, a good grasp of orbital mechanics, properly maintained life support, and a sufficiently motivated crew.
Detecting social cues through systems without the proper sensors without giving a massive number of false positives (which even today give tons of false positives) is something we can't even begin to theorize to any scientifically acceptable degree.
Perhaps in time someone, somewhere will report that detecting social cues is simply a matter of X, with X being whatever the method is to determining intent once we have figured out how to make the process work. Just like going to the moon, or flying, or transplanting organs, or any of the myriad "stupid" and "impossible" ideas that are now "simply a matter of...", well you get the idea.
2014/06/06 18:20:48
Subject: US Secret Service want 'Sarcasm Detector' for Twitter
Reading this, I'm tempted to write to the US Secret Service with a simple proposal. If they take however million dollars they're going to plough into this and give it to me, I'll happily sit there all day 'decoding' tweets for them...
2014/06/06 18:26:37
Subject: US Secret Service want 'Sarcasm Detector' for Twitter
squidhills wrote: Human beings have a hard time accurately detecting sarcasm on the internet. What possible hope could a computer program have?
The year is 1961.
"What the feth? Can you believe Mr. 'Camelot' over here? Wants to put a man on the moon? Humans have a hard enough time traveling between cities and he wants to go to the moon?"
Getting to the moon and back is simply a matter of strategically allocated thrust, a good grasp of orbital mechanics, properly maintained life support, and a sufficiently motivated crew.
Detecting social cues through systems without the proper sensors without giving a massive number of false positives (which even today give tons of false positives) is something we can't even begin to theorize to any scientifically acceptable degree.
Perhaps in time someone, somewhere will report that detecting social cues is simply a matter of X, with X being whatever the method is to determining intent once we have figured out how to make the process work. Just like going to the moon, or flying, or transplanting organs, or any of the myriad "stupid" and "impossible" ideas that are now "simply a matter of...", well you get the idea.
When we decided to go to the moon, we already knew all the physics that would be involved in it. The basics of the technology were all already there. It was simply a matter of scale at that point so that America could finally shift the goal posts far enough to claim victory in the space race despite Russia already beating them to every other milestone.
We don't even know where to start to accurately (and by accurately I mean admissable in court accurately) divine intention from text on written on the internet.
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2014/06/06 19:58:14
Subject: US Secret Service want 'Sarcasm Detector' for Twitter
Problem here is that twitter only contains 140 at most per tweet... getting context would be... challenging. As a software developer, even I would have a hard time coding decision support routines to identify sarcasm. At the most, they'll only be able to use a repository of obvious sarcasms to filter out the "noise" and simply flag suspected tweets.
Actually the brevity of Twitter makes it easier, you have hardline upper limit on parameters. Still I feel that the sarcasm detector will look at earlier posts in a conversation.
Lets take an elementary look at this.
Poster A: I really think that X must Y.
Poster B: You must be joking Y is not responsible for X, Z is the real problem
Poster A: Dude X and Y have been interlinked since before Z even existed.
Poster B : Yeah of course, X must totally Y, it would mean everything is so much better.
Poster A and B both say more or less the same thing in the first and last tweet. Poster B doesn't require time if X and Y are of interest to national security.
Language structure should not be too hard to code, if you can review one tweet you can review zillions, and thus cross reference them. It wont work for all sarcasm, I don't think that is a realistic goal, but if it costs down on any % of false positives then it will save a huge amount of wasted time for intelligence personnel.
n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.
It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion.
2014/06/07 23:38:47
Subject: US Secret Service want 'Sarcasm Detector' for Twitter
That is actually a pretty good idea in theory. Shame that it is unlikely to work. Sarcasm can be almost impossible to detect without tone.
I guess it is the 'spend millions of dollars on unnecessarily complicated technology which doesn't even work better than much more straightforward and cheaper stuff' time of the year again.
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2014/06/08 00:20:12
Subject: Re:US Secret Service want 'Sarcasm Detector' for Twitter
Considering how much data they mine on us it probably isn't that unrealistic.
- Some sarcastic twitter post gets flagged for terrorism key words.
- Post gets send to sarcasm detector.
- Person is identified and relevant accounts and posts get searched for key words.
- If twitter post was flagged but previous twitter posts were benign, twitter profile is benign, associated Facebook was benign, and no other flags are found it gets labeled "sarcasm" and filed in the sarcasm file.
- Multiple "sarcasm" flags by the same user gets send for human review.
If it reduced false positives by 75% and frees up man-hours it wouldn't be a total waste of money.
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