Technology helps The Times field thousands of comments a day. But only human judgment can apply Times standards to reject a submission. One editor gav

Why Humans, Not Machines, Make the Tough Calls on Comments

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2021-10-28 03:00:07

Technology helps The Times field thousands of comments a day. But only human judgment can apply Times standards to reject a submission. One editor gave a tour of the decisions that make up her job.

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An abbreviation considered vulgar by New York Times standards also refers to perfectly innocent people aspiring to become bachelors of science. Here is a small but revealing reason that artificial intelligence cannot replace human news judgment in Times journalism.

Software helps The Times keep up with a deluge of 12,000 reader comments that pour in each day. Comments appear on 15 percent of all articles published online. Since 2017, The Times has depended on a program designed by Alphabet, Google’s parent company, that helps automate the vetting process by relying on patterns from more than 16 million acceptances and rejections of comments by Times moderators.

Despite the software’s power, it cannot differentiate between crude and acceptable uses of the same word or phrase — like “B.S.” Deeper questions also arise. Where should you draw the line between criticizing and insulting, nicknaming and name-calling, extrapolating and digressing?

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