Help train my online vegan activist chat-bot.

[JamesAnelay]

Hello Everyone,
As part of a hackathon even (The Climate Fixathon) I'm building a online vegan activist. It's a chatbot ( We should all be vegan. Change my mind. Educational Chatbot.) that thinks we should all be vegan and asks the user to "change my mind?". The plan being that it can educate about some vegan related myths e.g "Can't get protein from plants".
For it to work well however, I need as many people as possible to chat to it, so that it can better understand, that's where you come in. If you have 5 mins go here - We should all be vegan. Change my mind. Educational Chatbot. - & have a conversation with it as-if you weren't already vegan. Note: It's more important that it can recognize common reasons e.g "But I need protein" than some of the more obscure reasons "But phones arn't vegan" for example. But please speak to it for as much time as you can spare.
If an answer isn't quite right, or you think it can be written better please leave a message here.
Thanks!

 

[Jamie in Chile]

I'm not sure I want to support these automated intelligences, I am not sure if they are a good idea or not. I don't like the idea that I might be debating with a bot without knowing it. Will that be the case here?

Of course, you might say you are only using for good or some academic project, but wasn't that's what the professor was told when he was developing the tech used for the Cambridge Analytica/facebook scandal. Just some academic project, we promise we won't use it to undermine global democracy.

 

[JamesAnelay]

Indeed Jamie it's a "bot" - essentially I've entered a list of possible questions/statements & matched them with possible answers/responses. The "intelligence" here comes from "natural language processing" so being able to match what the user typed with what they mean. I hate to be the one to break it to you but this kind of "AI" is literally everywhere, if you typed anything in google recently it used exactly the same thing under the hood to understand what you meant when you type a search.

It's not going to say anything I've not told it too, or suddenly decide that being a carnivore is best.

 

[Second Summer]

I said something to it, but it ignored me!

 

[shyvas]

I said something to it, but it ignored me!

Not surprised.

 

[silva]

I typed "I have cats", it responded-"Can't aren't like humans, as a species, they are obligate carnivores. In very simple terms, this means that cats require meat in their diet. They have specific nutrient needs that can only be supplied through the ingestion of animal meat."

This is truly such a debated topic with so many new formulas of vegan cat foods. Would really turn off many vegans

 

[silva]

What is it's purpose? It was helpful with queries of "allergic to beans and gluten", or "I have reptiles"
It referred me to the vegan society, which is really one of very many references!
I'm not seeing it's usefulness

 

[Jamie in Chile]

this kind of "AI" is literally everywhere,

The fact that something is common does not work as a justification of it.

Will the people that are debating with the bot know they are debating with a bot or not? Will this always be made clear?

I do applaud the effort to spread veganism so good on you for that. I'm just unclear whether using a bot is a good or a bad idea. Honestly don't know. Keeping an open mind.

 

[shyvas]

Hello Everyone,
As part of a hackathon even (The Climate Fixathon) I'm building a online vegan activist. It's a chatbot ( We should all be vegan. Change my mind. Educational Chatbot.) that thinks we should all be vegan and asks the user to "change my mind?". The plan being that it can educate about some vegan related myths e.g "Can't get protein from plants".
For it to work well however, I need as many people as possible to chat to it, so that it can better understand, that's where you come in. If you have 5 mins go here - We should all be vegan. Change my mind. Educational Chatbot. - & have a conversation with it as-if you weren't already vegan. Note: It's more important that it can recognize common reasons e.g "But I need protein" than some of the more obscure reasons "But phones arn't vegan" for example. But please speak to it for as much time as you can spare.
If an answer isn't quite right, or you think it can be written better please leave a message here.
Thanks!

@JamesAn, I have chatted with your online activist as I'm keen to support any means of promoting veganism. Perhaps you could also give us some insight concerning The Climate Fixathon.

I asked the charming bot multiple questions and I got different answers. 50 % of the time the response was '' I don't understand the question''.
Perhaps you could give us a few more tips on how to ask the question. Perhaps the sentences are too long ? Should key words just be used ?

When I asked it '' Can I eat eggs ?'', I received a very detailed and interesting response including a video. When I went on to (logically) ask it '' How can I bake cakes without eggs ?'' I received exactly the same response. I suppose that it's due to the numerous teething problems it's going through during the training process that you have described.

I liked the fact that there were links posted in the responses. This makes it far easier to access useful information for people interested in veganism.

 

[JamesAnelay]

Shyvas,

The Climate Fixathon is a online hackathon "to help fix the climate". fixathon.io. The idea being that participants create a product of some soft e.g a carbon offsetting website aimed at helping the climate. For me I think going vegan can have a massive impact on our food related carbon emissions & that's why I set out trying to create this little chat bot with the aim of braking down some myths that non-vegans hold in an aim to make more people make the switch.

Its purpose is supposed to be for non-vegans to have a chat with "somebody" in the comfort of their own homes, without being pressured or made to feel bad where they can say the things that probably stop them being vegan, this may be "I love milk too much", "I cant get protein from plants", "but plants feel pain too why is eating them better", "isn't soy bad for the environment" etc etc.

I can see you guys have asked particular difficult questions, but that's ok now that they have been asked I can add a answer and hopefully next time around that answer should be given.

Indeed there are 1000's of possible responses it's going to take time.

Anyway, I just wanted to ask for help, to state basic things that non-vegans are likely to say.

 

[JamesAnelay]

I typed "I have cats", it responded-"Can't aren't like humans, as a species, they are obligate carnivores. In very simple terms, this means that cats require meat in their diet. They have specific nutrient needs that can only be supplied through the ingestion of animal meat."

This is truly such a debated topic with so many new formulas of vegan cat foods. Would really turn off many vegans

Fair point RE cats, that is just what I as a vegan thought to be true, turns out it possibly can be done with fortified foods. I'll research this more & update the response. Your also welcome to send me a balanced recommended response if you have one.

I don't know everything, hense my requests here.

 

[silva]

Fair point RE cats, that is just what I as a vegan thought to be true, turns out it possibly can be done with fortified foods. I'll research this more & update the response. Your also welcome to send me a balanced recommended response if you have one.

I don't know everything, hense my requests here.

I wouldn't want to chat with a bot that's been programmed with answers-It lacks the nuanced response of debate, of tailoring responses based on open ended questions.
I think curiousity is best directed to forums, where you can get differing views, links to sites and research.

 

[Andy_T]

Not sure if this is a good idea.

People here will likely ask it where it gets its protein from, what about deserted island and whether plants feel pain, to complete the standard "Defensive Omnivore Bingo"

Well, I mean, some people.

OK, OK, I mean ... I would likely do that ...

 

[Andy_T]

Seems you already trained it well

 

[JamesAnelay]

Thanks Andy_T, yeah i'll be honest I've posted this in 1 or 2 other locations (reddit) where people seems to "get it" more & I got 100's of good responses, so I could make the answers better (As you've shown above).

Luckily I didn't post here first, because most here just did a big **** on my bomb fire, & I would have given up / not bothered.

Of-course I cannot make it respond intelligently to all issues, if people bring up "But what about phones" or some very specific arguments that likely on a vegan will even be awear of (Allthough I have added an answer for that). But I can have a go at what I would suggest most non-vegans would argue e.g "But I like the taste too much", or "being vegan is hard".

I'm not saying it can answer all the points that you as knowledgeable vegans may bring up, but asking you to pretend to speak with it asif you were a "regular Omnivore" mainly so that it can being to understand different versions of the same thing e.g:

"I like meat too much, I like beef too much, I enjoy the taste too much, I enjoy the taste of beef too much" etc etc.

For example I sent this to my brother who would never think to venture to this or any other forum on his own & wont comfortably discuss it with me, but was happy to tell it that he wasn't sure where we would get protein from (So It responded that it's possible to get protein from plants), that he could give up meat but not milk (So it educated him a little bit on the problems with dairy) & that he liked the taste too much to give it up (which prompted the taste vs life response). etc

 

[Jamie in Chile]

The responses to Andy are pretty good!

 

[shyvas]

Thanks Andy_T, yeah i'll be honest I've posted this in 1 or 2 other locations (reddit) where people seems to "get it" more & I got 100's of good responses, so I could make the answers better (As you've shown above).

Luckily I didn't post here first, because most here just did a big **** on my bomb fire, & I would have given up / not bothered.

Of-course I cannot make it respond intelligently to all issues, if people bring up "But what about phones" or some very specific arguments that likely on a vegan will even be awear of (Allthough I have added an answer for that). But I can have a go at what I would suggest most non-vegans would argue e.g "But I like the taste too much", or "being vegan is hard".

I

For example I sent this to my brother who would never think to venture to this or any other forum on his own & wont comfortably discuss it with me, but was happy to tell it that he wasn't sure where we would get protein from (So It responded that it's possible to get protein from plants), that he could give up meat but not milk (So it educated him a little bit on the problems with dairy) & that he liked the taste too much to give it up (which prompted the taste vs life response). etc

I would also think that many forums could possibly scare off non vegans. I think this was my case before becoming a vegetarian.

 

[Brian W]

& that he liked the taste too much to give it up (which prompted the taste vs life response)

I think the taste v. life argument is a tricky one because we are hardwired to seek the food we enjoy eating and no diet is sustainable unless we get some pleasure out of it. I think it would be better to come from an angle asking the omnivore "how many vegan products have you tried" or "don't you like any vegetables then?"

I think the chat bot is a great idea - a fun way to educate and maybe point people to good forums for further knowledge and help. Good luck with it!

 

[shyvas]

I think the chat bot is a great idea - a fun way to educate and maybe point people to good forums for further knowledge and help. Good luck with it!

I totally agree.