Facebook Built a Chatbot to Help Employees Deflect Criticism Over the Holidays
upstart writes in with a submission, via IRC, for SoyCow1337.
Facebook built a chatbot to help employees deflect criticism over the holidays
Facebook's public image is in such a disastrous state that the company's public relations team built an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot to help its employees deflect criticism from family members over the holidays, reports The New York Times. The tool, called "Liam Bot" for reasons the company has not disclosed, helps walk employees through tough conversations about Facebook's various controversies.
The tool was rolled out to employees shortly before the US Thanksgiving holiday, the NYT reports, and it first entered testing back in the spring. The answers are written by the company's public relations team and largely appear to align with executive team's public statements on topics like free speech, election meddling, moderation, and more.
When asked about hate speech, for instance, the NYT reports that Liam Bot will respond with a few available prompts like, "It [Facebook] has hired more moderators to police its content," and, "Regulation is important for addressing the issue." The bot also links out to helpful Facebook blog posts and, in the case the question is a technical one, FAQs and guides to problems like resetting an account password.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.