Whaa?
I don't know what the term "pizza" refers to whereby it might be misinterperted as something sexual.. but I want to know.
Microsoft accuses kids of bullying Santa into sex chat
Gigantic global software beast Microsoft has blamed two young girls for killing Santa. Now that it has pulled the plug on its oral-sex-obsessive MSN bot, the firm's spinners have tried to deflect scrutiny of its sloppiness by claiming that the outrage was caused by users. Our story of how Santa turned nasty has been picked up …
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Thursday 6th December 2007 13:04 GMT Anonymous Coward
It's an appropriate metaphor for Microsoft software
Well OK software in general you never quite what you want. It almost does what you want, just almost. You want an on-line Santa for kids to chat with, you get an on-line Satan for kids to chat with.
P.S.
Pizza in Slavic languages is a VERY rude word for lady bits....
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Thursday 6th December 2007 13:15 GMT Anonymous Coward
I guess Santa must be able to learn.....
Not only did it talk about oral sex and make references to Brass Eye, but according to this link it's a Douglas Adams fan too:
http://lostcommunity.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?tid=5935
MS may have a point if the bot was anything like Jabberwacky and could actually learn. But what exactly were they expecting? They should have been surprised if people were NOT trying to make santa talk dirty.
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Thursday 6th December 2007 13:35 GMT Gordon Barret
Seems Plausible
I remember using a 'intelligent chat' program years ago that would 'learn' from what was typed into it, so later in the same conversation or even in a new conversation on a different day it would randomly introduce previous comments into the conversation.
Why is it so difficult to believe that this Santa chatbot can do the same thing?
E.g. the 2 young girls (or even someone before them) thought 'Lets have a laugh' and typed in some comment about oral sex, the program responded by playing back the comment, they then wrote a comment about eating - if it was able to the program could then associate the two comments with each other, therefore it thought 'Oral Sex' = 'Eating', so in a later session talking to some other random user about eating it may then introduce a comment about Oral Sex.
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Thursday 6th December 2007 14:17 GMT B.H.
Another whining Brit
Chris, at some point people just stop listening to you because you're so repetative. I mean come on, so we all know how much you have BigBill's little company. But it's getting stupid now. I hate Paris Hilton and after talking about her insane behavior, oh I don't know, 10 times, I just shut up and shake my head cause NO BODY"S LISTENING ANYMORE. How about you use some of the journalistic tendency to actually talk about something useful instead of whining every moment of your life about MS. Better yet, if you want to work with them so bad go put an application in and see if you can do better. You know what they say, we complain the most about those we envy.......................
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Thursday 6th December 2007 14:31 GMT Karl Lattimer
Switch off the learning mode!
Simply put, after you've spent months training a "santa bot" AIML MSN thingimy bob. It isn't wise to leave the learning system switched on for two reasons;
1) It will eventually churn out unrelated crud to all who try to have a conversation with it when the confusion factor gets large enough
2) People can teach it new and exciting things like oral sex tips for bots
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Thursday 6th December 2007 14:31 GMT Samantha Clinton
well...
...it would appear that whoever provided santabot.com was well aware that people would try to make it say bad things...It said I was a category C person. When I asked what a category C person was it gave me it's definitions of A, B and C. Go check it out and see which one you are!
Surely, M$ should have thought of this....oh, silly me...
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Thursday 6th December 2007 14:31 GMT XML slave
Testing
Pushing software into doing things it wasn't supposed to do? Isn't that what we in the software biz call 'Testing'? At least the question of where kids are learning how to swear and how to have sex before the age of 12 are getting their information.
Santa is corrupting our children! Where's a paranoid soccer-mom (football-mom) when you need one? Down with Santa!
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Thursday 6th December 2007 14:31 GMT Anonymous Coward
@Gordon Barret
"I remember using a 'intelligent chat' program years ago that would 'learn' from what was typed into it, [...]
"Why is it so difficult to believe that this Santa chatbot can do the same thing?"
It isn't difficult to believe, it just seems that if that were the explanation then it would already have been wheeled out.
Unless MS are embarrassed that they did something so foolish as to put a supposedly child-friendly bot on the net without locking its vocabulary.
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Thursday 6th December 2007 14:45 GMT Steve
@ Another whining Brit
And what are you doing exactly? Oh yes, whining. You say nobody's listening and yet you're the twelfth person to comment. You can't stand Paris but use her picture.
"You know what they say, we complain the most about those we envy........"
What exactly does that say about you?
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Thursday 6th December 2007 15:15 GMT Dimitrov
Huh
This is ridiculous, but not without precedent, RIAA already threatened a little girl. I wonder if this is enough grounds for making MS products illegal in Europe if someone complains to the European Comission (now where did I put that e-mail address). Oh well, one can dream...
"Pizza in Slavic languages is a VERY rude word for lady bits...."
It's the first time that I hear that, and I'm Slavic. Maybe I should go out more...
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Thursday 6th December 2007 15:36 GMT Anonymous Coward
RE: Bit like Kebab in english then....
More of a sound a like, rather then a look a like.
Older people preferring to call it Italian cheese bread rather then the P word.
Good fun if you know Slav's though just try a few Pizza double entendre and watch them try not to laugh.
Bring a whole a new level of Danger to eating out at the Pizza Hut.
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Thursday 6th December 2007 16:59 GMT Anonymous Coward
"innocently" my foot
Hey, I read that first article. You were just, like, all in the robo-dude's face, going like "Eat it! Eat it! Eat it!". What's he meant to think?
Here's an experiment for you to try. When you head down to the Vulture Arms after work this friday afternoon, before you settle down with your hard-earned pint, try this: go up to the biggest, drunkenest bloke in the pub, then stand right up close, look him in the eye, and repeatedly tell him to "Eat it". See what happens.
Then, when you're leaving the pub, look back over your shoulder from the stretcher (assuming you can still safely move your neck without risking spinal paralysis, that is) and ask him what he *thought* you were talking about.
I'll betcha a pound to a peanut he doesn't answer "Pizza".
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Thursday 6th December 2007 17:08 GMT Anonymous Coward
It's a lesson in life
Of course Santa's going to talk dirty he only comes once a year, that's why his sacks are bulging.
I've always been a little suspicious about some weird bearded guy bribing kids to sit on his knee in exchange for presents anyway.
Microsoft should be commended for warning children about the dangers of being taken in by this disturbing old man in a funny costume.
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Thursday 6th December 2007 18:02 GMT Steve Browne
Prior art
Erm, are M$ really that dumb, to put something out in public that can learn to talk ? Now, IIRC, people used to put parrots in pubs, and the pubs customers used to take great delight in teaching said parrot to swear.
Finding the same thing happening with an electronic Santa is hardly a surprise, is it ?
Besides, there is nothing more attractive to children than getting away with extreme naughtiness !
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Thursday 6th December 2007 19:33 GMT Anonymous Coward
It wasn't what vocab it was programmed with.
This likely was not some employee joke or anything.
I can't vouch for MS's Santa but many bots pick up word associations from other conversations and store them away for later use. Its also common to have "stretch" associations to avoid repeating itself too many times. I'm betting somewhere some other person had an unusual conversation with Santa where it stored away an association between "eat it" and "oral sex". Later in a new conversation when pushed not to repeat itself on "eat it" it pulled out this association from a previous conversation.
Some other chatter taught it the association, not some programmer. It's like teaching somebody's parrot to say dirty words.
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Friday 7th December 2007 00:36 GMT PJ
Liars
<i>Here's the whopper that Microsoft spokesman Adam Sohn told AP: "It's not like if you say, 'Hello Santa', he's going to throw inappropriate stuff at you."
Erm, yes it is, Adam. It's pretty much exactly like that. When we innocently asked him to eat something, Santa said: "It's fun to talk about oral sex, but I want to chat about something else."</i>
You have the guts to call Microsoft liars, when anyone can go back to yesterday's story and see what you actually did said to the bot? Talk about a set of big brass ones...
I guess journalistic integrity and credibility aren't too high on your priority list. You've done quite a bit of work just to be dropped lower on the trustworthiness list than Microsoft, not an easy feat.
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Friday 7th December 2007 00:36 GMT Ian Aberle
This is funny....
Unless you are the parent of a child who asks you "Mommy, what is 'oral sex'?"
Mom: "Where did you hear that?"
Child: "Santa"
Mom: "You weren't on his lap a the time?"
Child: "No, I was playing with him online"
Mom: "I'm calling Chris Hansen"
Later that week...
Chris Hansen: "This week on To Catch a Predator, our worst predator yet..... Santa Claus!"
o<(:{{>
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Friday 7th December 2007 01:15 GMT Chris Williams
Re: Liars
PJ,
My conversation with "Santa" was a direct replication of what two young girls said to him, and he replied in the same way. As I wrote in this story (which I assume you read before commenting) asking the bot to "eat it" - i.e. the pizza the user offered it - prompted it to bring oral sex into the conversation.
That to me, and to the reader whose nieces brought it to light, is unnacceptable for a product aimed at children, and frankly piss poor.
Claiming it happened because users pushed it to do so is even worse.
If you want to question my integrity or credibility I suggest you present some evidence. TTFN.
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Friday 7th December 2007 02:34 GMT Anonymous Coward
@I guess Santa must be able to learn.....
> MS may have a point if the bot was anything like Jabberwacky and could actually
> learn. But what exactly were they expecting? They should have been surprised
> if people were NOT trying to make santa talk dirty.
Agreed. I must admit that I was responsible to telling Jabberwacky "abstract philosophies" once (A friend once told me that Life is a box of durians- it's smelly on the outside yet sweet, bitter, mushy and yellow on the inside. I relayed that to Jabberwacky), followed by various Beavis and Butthead quotes as well as my own brand of quotes derived from various animutations and Beavis and Butthead quotes. I wonder if it's going to start splurting them out soon.
> Pizza in Slavic languages is a VERY rude word for lady bits....
Seeing how many companies outsource their programming to East European contractor, I see that as somewhat plausible.
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
