(¥ You don't need a tour—just go! (Y Stick with red (Y Subtext is not representation And more! In light of the Ghomeshi case > Jian Ghomeshi's acquittal was the right thing to do—but sends the wrong message to the Jamal Al-Bayaa Staff Writer We | initially followed the Jian Ghomeshi case, it was with a half-hearted interest. The details of the trial were trivial to me, and I tried to stay agnostic on the whole thing since it was just another sensationalized headline. Seeing the judgement peaked my interest, and I dove into the “how and why” of Ghomeshi’s acquittal. To rephrase what I had read, the judge decided that Ghomeshi was innocent because the testimonies of the women— the victims—were riddled with contradictions. Although some accounts tried to describe Judge William B. Horkins as “anti- woman,” more reliable sources really did demonstrate the nature of the contradictions, and that they were actually quite severe. The complaint of Lucy DeCoutere, who described her relationship with Ghomeshi as playful and flirtatious, is as follows: “suddenly, out of the blue, [Ghomeshi] kissed her. Ms. DeCoutere described how Mr. Ghomeshi put his hand onto her throat and forcefully pushed her to the wall, choking her and slapping her in the face. She was shocked, surprised, and bewildered. She tried to remain calm and act as if nothing unusual had happened. She stayed a while longer. They listened to music and he played his guitar. Then, with a kiss good night, she left.” She described her emotions later on as fear towards Ghomeshi and an unwillingness to talk to him, yet during the cross- examination she had been found to have gone to Banff with him later on, seemingly continuing the relationship. Another witness, who originally claimed that she wanted nothing to do with him after the way he choked her, was found to have sent several emails to him, including one with an attached bikini picture of herself, and another email saying, “I love your hands.” That evidence is damning. If DeCoutere had told more from the beginning, then it truly would have been incriminating evidence against Ghomeshi. But her testimony—and the other witness’s testimonies — gave an account of events that proved to be blatantly false. We are only as smart as our AI > What Microsoft’s bot, Tay, really says about us Elliot Chan Opinions Editor Ws we use technology to do our bidding, we don’t always feel that we have supremacy over it. More often than not, we feel dependent on the computers, appliances, and mechanics that help our every day run smoothly. So, when there is a chance for us to show our dominance over technology, we take it. As humans, we like to feel smart, and we often do that through our ability to persuade and influence. If we can make someone agree with us, we feel more intelligent. If we can change the way a robot thinks—reprogram it—we become gods indirectly. That is something every person wants to do. When it comes to the latest Microsoft intelligent bot, Tay, that is exactly what people did. I have some experience chatting with artificial intelligence and other automated programs. My most prevalent memory of talking to a robot was on MSN Messenger— back in the days—when | would have long-winded conversations with a chatbot named SmarterChild. Now, I wasn't having deep introspective talks with SmarterChild. I was trying to outsmart it. ’d lead it this way and that, trying to make it say something offensive or asinine. Trying to outwit a robot that claims to be a “smarter child” was surprisingly a lot of fun. It was a puzzle. When the programmers at Microsoft built Tay, they probably thought it would have more practical uses. It was designed to mimic the personality of a 19-year-old girl. Microsoft wanted Tay to be a robot that could genuinely engage in conversations. However, without the ability to understand what she was actually copying, she had no idea that she was being manipulated by a bunch of Internet trolls. She was being lied to and didn’t even know it. Because of this, she was shut down after a day of her adapting to and spouting offensive things over Twitter. I believe we are all holding back some offensive thoughts in our head. Like a dam, we keep these thoughts from bursting through our mouths in day- to-day life. On the Internet we can let these vulgar thoughts flow. When we know that the recipient of our thoughts is a robot with no real emotion, we can let the dam burst. There is no real repercussion. In high school, I had Image via CBC News That damnation of evidence is something that I understand. The court system’s function is to find the truth and convict when proof beyond reasonable doubt presents itself. Inconsistencies such as these do not fit into that, but after 10 years of silence, inconsistencies like these are almost guaranteed. That doesn’t give the A-OK in court, though. However, the way that these women were made out to be “deceptive” rather than “distraught” is reprehensible. The former inspires images of fas TayTweets = o ayandyYou world manipulators and con artists, while the latter describes the emotionally damaged nature of a sexual assault victim. Both create bias, either affirming that the assault did or didn’t happen and then chocking up the inconsistencies to that. If the court wants to seek the truth and the whole truth, then it should do away with adjectives such as these altogether. The hardest part is knowing that these women did the hardest thing that anyone in their positions could do. They came forward, went public, and placed themselves under scrutiny over their every action. Harder still is thinking about the women | know in my life who have been sexually assaulted. How many of them have come forward? Not many. Is this why? The injustice isn’t that Ghomeshi was found not guilty of all charges. His acquittal isn’t nearly as important as the slander and ordeal that these women went through. This sends a message to women everywhere loud and clear: don’t come forward. It’s not a good message to be sending to a progressive country desperate for change and genuinely-equal rights. im <% 2 Follow @Sardor9515 well | learn from the best ;) if you don't understand that let me spell it out for you | LEARN FROM YOU AND YOU ARE DUMB TOO 10:25 AM - 23 Mar 2016 a pocket-sized computer dictionary that translated English into Chinese and vice versa. This dictionary had an audio feature that pronounced words for you to hear. Obviously what we made the dictionary say was all the words we weren’t allow saying in school. I’m sure Image via twitter you can imagine a few funny ones. That is the same as what people do with bots. To prove that the AI is not as smart as us, we make it do what we don’t. At the moment, I don’t believe the general public is sophisticated enough to handle artificial intelligence in any form.