Secret Service Wants Software That Detects Sarcasm On Social Media

[Wilikon]

[...]
The work order asks for a long list of specific tools, including the ability to identify influential figures on social media, analyze data streams in real time, access old Twitter data and use heat maps. (It also wants the software to be compatible with the five-year-old Internet Explorer 8 browser — a sign of the government’s outdated technology.)


http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-secret-service-wants-software-that-detects-sarcasm-yeah-good-luck/2014/06/03/35bb8bd0-eb41-11e3-9f5c-9075d5508f0a_story.html

[railzand]

fascinating

[Ron~Popeil]

How about they just focus on the jobs they have instead of finding new ways to over analyze every god damned thing we do or say?

[beetcoin]

man, i instantly thought of "the onion" once reading the topic of this thread. i was pleasantly surprised when this topic turned out to be legit.

[taipo]

All social media sites need to do is add this function:
[hypotheticallyspeaking]Lets just say I have a device that ticks....[/hypotheticallyspeaking]

Then have the code add some Dr Evil speechmark fingers around your statement,



 
Sorted, SS send your BTC to my wallet: 1MGaKZ9ndQPqux65h2rncSXRomvwreXTbn for saving you millions.

[PolarPoint]

Real people can't catch sarcasm at times, let alone a computer software. Sarcasm is a mix of exaggeration, humour, insult. It cannot be detected only from context, may also need a understanding of concepts, views, relationships, current news...

You'll need a "learning computer" and train it for years to be able to detect sarcasm.

[bitsmichel]

Real people can't catch sarcasm at times, let alone a computer software.

My thoughts exactly. A probabilistic system could easily be way off.

[Benjig]

The Secret Service in its zeal to protect the President is showing itself little different from, say, the Gestapo was in its zeal to protect the Fuehrer. Moreover, this is an excellent example of the difficulty in distinguishing mendacity from stupidity in the actions and pronouncements of bureaucrats.

[Lethn]

LOL!

[5flags]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN4QS8nL6bY&feature=kp

[Mikez]

Secret Service wants software that detects sarcasm on social media.(Yeah, good luck.)

Washington Post, I see what you did over there . Nice pun!

Well, this reminded me of a scene from the movie Elysium, set in a dystopian future, that fits this perfectly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzGzf0S0WqI

[Mudd]

Maybe they want it so they can stop arresting people for saying sarcastic or non-literal stuff on twitter etc.

[bitsmichel]

Maybe they want it so they can stop arresting people for saying sarcastic or non-literal stuff on twitter etc.

This technology would not only be used for sarcasm, but for whatever you want to search for. 

[JohnnyLightning]

I feel so safe I can't freaking stand it.  

[beetcoin]

i can help the secret service and other underground institutions: i love them, and i think their existence is completely necessary. they do great work.

[Nemo1024]

beetcoin has been flagged as a sarcasm-user by the forum's automated screening system

[plateex]

yeah, because -as we all know - sarcasm is the biggest threat to the national security

[Swordsoffreedom]

Now that is one of the hardest coding jobs I could think of
Akin to having a smart AI that can detect lexicon patterns and then filter them into common remarks and sayings then take the variants of those sayings to create an algorithm that detects the probability of any set of parameters being met to detect sarcasm
Within the context of a long conversation increasing the error rate.

I guess it could be done but efficiently from A to B might take merging a few technologies
We do have Intel's Watson system so Sarcasm is just a step away.

[bitsmichel]

Now that is one of the hardest coding jobs I could think of
Akin to having a smart AI that can detect lexicon patterns and then filter them into common remarks and sayings then take the variants of those sayings to create an algorithm that detects the probability of any set of parameters being met to detect sarcasm
Within the context of a long conversation increasing the error rate.

I guess it could be done but efficiently from A to B might take merging a few technologies
We do have Intel's Watson system so Sarcasm is just a step away.

Indeed, this is an expensive project in terms of development time (and cost). The algorithm would be experimental, so its going to have quite a few errors.

[Wilikon]

All social media sites need to do is add this function:
[hypotheticallyspeaking]Lets just say I have a device that ticks....[/hypotheticallyspeaking]

Then have the code add some Dr Evil speechmark fingers around your statement,



 
Sorted, SS send your BTC to my wallet: 1MGaKZ9ndQPqux65h2rncSXRomvwreXTbn for saving you millions.

"for saving you millions"

Don't you mean... Saving you Billions?