Inside Track
Woke Bot Sounds Alarm When Detecting Offensive Speech
An electronic thought-police bot going by the name “Themis,” intended for classrooms and social settings, is designed to detect and interrupt “offensive” remarks.
This is not satire, though it is often hard to tell in today’s world. Themis, named after the Greek goddess of justice and social order, is an actual product invented by an actual person who, it appears, markets it with an actual straight face.
“The thought police have arrived,” writes the U.K. Telegraph, reporting on the behavior bot. Themis relies on “extremely bothersome alarms” that last “approximately two minutes,” as the Telegraph also relates, that are intended to warn the transgressor and provoke discussion.
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