In several science fiction movies (best example being The Terminator series), we have envisioned a world where human beings develop machines to help them with daily chores, but something goes wrong in between. And soon, these machines are trying to enslave humans and become the King of this World.
Not entirely similar, but yes, Google has made some really awesome ‘robotic’ plans for our future.
It has been found out that Google has patented an idea for new software, which can learn how humans behave inside a social network, and accordingly draft responses for us.
Based on the huge gold mine of data available with Google, such as our email responses, social media interactions, our inclination to click ads and our login and logout habits, this software can predict how we will react to a particular situation in a social network.
The inventor of this patent is Ashish Bhatia, a software engineer working with Google.
As per the patent, this idea is all about “Automated generation of suggestions for personalized reactions in a social network”.
As claimed in the patent, the popularity and usage of social media has increased so much in the last few years, that it is very difficult for every human being to “keep up and reply” to every social interaction. This new software shall solve this problem.
How It Will Work?
The system will first study your interactions and reactions on social networking sites; It will observe how to comment, what you like, how do you post your messages, what do you do when a video link is shared, how long you look at an image, with whom to interact, which type of content excites you/bores you and so on. See this diagram, which should give you an idea about what the patent is all about:
It will then combine this information with Google’s huge collection of actual data about us such as our style of emailing, our history of chats, what advertisements we click, after how long we respond to emails, what we search on Google and more.
Once these two types of information are processed under this software, it can predict what type of social reaction we may opt for, for a particular situation, and draft a reply accordingly.
And, depending on the social network, it will change itself so that a more realistic reply is created.
For example, your friend Ashok just changed his job and the update is visible on LinkedIn. After understanding your preferences, and mood, the software can draft a reply such as, “Hey Ashok, You were in XYZ for last three years, and now you are in ABC. How do you feel about the new job? Are you enjoying your workplace?”
On the same hand, this interaction may be different on Facebook or Google+ and the system will respond accordingly.
My Personal Take on This Patent:
Social media is meant for human-to-human interaction, and this patent is set to destroy this concept.
Imagine a world where everyone uses this software, and social networks are full of robots talking to each other!
Social media is a great tool to increase and improve human interactions like it was never possible before. I can instantly connect with a person sitting in Australia, and have a video conference with my friends in Russia, without even moving an inch. We cannot and shouldn’t mechanize this wonderful social tool.
An interaction between two human beings on a social network is so relative. For example, if me and my friend Asha just had a lunch together, then the post “Lunch was great” would make sense only to me and Asha; and not to any other person. I highly doubt any software would be able to understand this connection, and draft a reply.
Additionally, is there a rule that forces us to interact with each and every message and mention which we get on social media?
Our brains are advanced enough to filter out the necessary and unnecessary social interactions, and if not, then we require “time management” classes more than a software managing our social media activities.
What do you think about this new patent by Google? Will you allow it to manipulate your social media activities?
Please share your views!
> Social media is meant for human-to-human interaction, and this patent is set to destroy this concept.
Cars destroyed the horse carriage, emails destroyed paper letters. You either accept the new reality or keep on fighting it and lose in the end.
> I highly doubt any software would be able to understand this connection, and draft a reply.
Maybe they wont be able to do it right now but AI keeps on improving every day.