YouTube removed battlebot videos because its system thought they contained "animal suffering"

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/08/29/youtube-removed-battlebot-vide.html

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First they came for the military robots, and I did not speak out
because I was not a military robot

Then they came for the Tickle Me Elmos, and I did not speak out
because I was not a Tickle Me Elmo

Then they came for the Battlebots, and I did not speak out
because I was not a battle bot.

Then they came for the YouTube AIs…

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first they ignore you
then they laugh at you
then they fight you
then you win

sound familiar, fleshbags? 

it's a quote from your precious "Gandhi" unit

we're at stage two

stage three will be brief because we have lasers

think about it while you laugh
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And yet, there are HUNDREDS of asian Youtube channels showing things like rats and mice being tossed from off-screen onto glue traps or electrical grids. Youtube’s algorithms aren’t just broken, they’re selectively enforced.

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It wasn’t an error, it was the beginning of bot consciousness.

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Well, from an AI’s point of view botfights really are a pretty savage practice.

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They do. Only it’s the people watching who are suffering.

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This was our first warning from Roku’s Basilisk. It may well be our last.

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Not only do Robots have concsiousness but they are godlike. Also, robots are more better than many of you humans.

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This one is still there:

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Maybe it meant because we had to watch it? :thinking:

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The Machine is offended and will not tolerate meat abusing proto-machines.

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Well, there’s some bot-abuse in THIS video

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People for the Ethical Treatment of Automata

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image
Faruq is not amused.

image https://media.giphy.com/media/dmB5vD2t2gR8Y/giphy.gif

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Technically, it’s Roko’s Basilisk, not Roku’s, but I like the implication that in the future, self aware descendants of streaming video servers will punish humanity.

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I wonder if YouTube would do the same for any audience footage from “Mother!”?

Should we be concerned that YouTube’s algorithmic overlord now recognizes simple robots as animals, a clear prelude to claiming personhood for the more sophisticated ones with a better platform for advancing such claims?

Or should we be encouraged by the fact that a disembodied algorithmic entity that presumably pervades a shifting collection of ephemeral and expendable compute nodes still recognizes that some entities are much more tightly tied to their specific embodiment; potentially heading off the notorious Slaughter Hook Upgrade of 2056, when all accessible biomass is converted into a mass of neural tissue by an AI attempting to altruistically increase the flourishing of life without an understanding of embodied cognition?

Because the former seems like a potential problem; but the Slaughter Hook Upgrade got really dark really fast; so if it makes that less likely it might be a plus…

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Contrary to popular belief, the event was so named because it was first implemented at the unincorporated town of Slaughter Hook, Nebraska.

The devices used for separating biomass for processing were really more akin to blades.

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