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AI may protect kids

from cyberbullies

Alice Klein algorithm on posts from ASKfm
it hadn’t seen before, they found
CYBERBULLYING has become a it could detect over two-thirds
scourge of social media. Artificial of threats, insults and instances
intelligence could help: it is of sexual harassment (PLoS One,
learning to detect and filter doi.org/gfdg6g).
out bullying posts before they The attacks it missed tended to
reach users. be more subtle and contain fewer
About one-third of teenagers obvious slurs, says Jacobs. “It’s
have been bullied online, really difficult to get 100 per cent
according to surveys. Some detection accuracy because there
victims have taken their own are so many different ways you
lives, prompting governments can bully someone,” he says.
to introduce harsher penalties Moreover, the system LAY-P1192M1516919/PLAINPICTURE
for perpetrators. However, these sometimes failed to distinguish
measures fail to prevent exposure malicious comments from
to cyberbullying in the first place. friendly sarcasm, such as
Gilles Jacobs at Ghent “You might want to do some
University in Belgium and his sports ahah x”. Nevertheless, One-third of teenagers says Davidson. The platform still
colleagues wondered if they the algorithm should become have been bullied online– lets users manually lodge reports
could train a machine-learning better at detecting the difference of bullying, which can then be
algorithm to spot bullying between subtle bullying and AI should make it easier for used to refine the algorithm and
content on social media, which harmless jokes as it is exposed platforms to moderate vast train it to recognise similar
might allow it to be removed to more examples, says Jacobs. swathes of content, says Thomas content in the future, he says.
before it can inflict damage. Social media sites are already Davidson at Cornell University in Young people will only accept
They asked linguists to read rolling out their own versions of New York. “It is simply infeasible these systems if they do their job
almost 200,000 posts on the systems like this. Instagram, for to rely on human moderators to without becoming too intrusive,
social media platform ASKfm instance, announced earlier this manually scan through millions says Jacobs. Surveys of teenagers
and pick out examples of month that it had started using a of comments every day,” he says. have found that they support
cyberbullying. Then they trained machine-learning algorithm to Instagram hasn’t revealed checking posts for cyberbullying,
an algorithm to identify words spot signs of bullying in photos the accuracy of its automated but that “they also want to be able
and phrases in this data that the and captions. Once a post is detection system, but even if it to express themselves freely and
linguists associated with bullying. flagged, it is sent to human isn’t perfect, it will be backed up not feel like they’re constantly
When the researchers tested the moderators to review. by traditional reporting methods, being monitored”, he says. ■

Mystery of why called dorso-ventral abdominal bees that typically give the signal, bees that don’t leave the hive and
vibration (DVAV), for about 90 years. to activate members of the colony. don’t experience normal circadian
old bees drum Some biologists have captured “The recipient bee seems to be rhythms, so the DVAV signals might
video of bees producing the sound, energised,” says Bencsik. “She gets help coordinate their activity with the
at night but these earlier studies have only on with her job with more energy, daily cycle of foraging, say the team.

monitored bees for short periods as if she has had coffee or something.” The DVAV is one of numerous
SOMETIMES a honeybee hive isn’t during the day. The researchers’ discovery that the vibrational signals that bees are
quite buzzing, and the workers need Now Martin Bencsik at Nottingham DVAV signal occurs most frequently at known to make. Others include the
a signal to get busy. Older honeybees Trent University, UK, and his night might be related to activities like waggle dance, which tells other bees
use a drumming sound to order colleagues have analysed a year’s food processing or brood care. These where to forage, and the cleaning
their colleagues to get to work. But worth of data from devices that record activities are performed by worker dance, which a bee performs when it
extensive monitoring of beehives vibrations in the honeycomb inside wants another bee to groom its wings.
suggests the signal is given most three hives, revealing more about the “ The signal is given most Bencsik’s team previously
often at night – which is odd given function of the message (Scientific often at night – which described a whooping sound that
that bees only forage during the day. Reports, doi.org/cvx4). is odd given bees only appears to be an expression of
We have known about this signal, Earlier studies suggest it is older forage during the day” surprise. Sam Wong ■

27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 13