Could social media and artificial intelligence join forces and save lives?
They do already.
Really interesting read here from Hewlett Packard. The premise of the article is that social media is not a replacement of real, face-to-face social interaction. But what it is does provide is a digital footprint that can shine a light on the behaviour and thoughts of the user. This footprint can be analysed by AI which it can use to either suggest content or help intervene.
A really powerful example of this in action today is from Facebook. An AI looks for language patterns that indicate a user may be suicidal. A human team checks the results, then reaches out to the user suggesting they get help.
The broader ramification when the AI technology advances further is interesting to consider. I can see Siri noticing you are putting on a few kilos from your latest selfie and suggesting and healthy breakfast and an early run to start the day.
Ryan Taylor's Blog 
Wow, that’s really neat that Facebook is identifying individuals needing help based on their posts! I wonder how effective it is? I remember reading an article years ago about other studies Facebook was doing about post influence. If a person’s feed is filled with happy posts, are they more likely to make a happy post? If the feed is all angry or sad posts, will the person make a post with a similar mood? I don’t remember what the answer was, but it’s really interesting how what we read can influence us, and how it is analyzed by Facebook’s algorithms.
The one difficulty they may run into with this is that some people have different online identities than in real life, which is one of the building blocks of Social Media described by Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy, and Silvestre (2011). Someone may seem like the happiest person on Earth based on their posts, but may actually have severe depression and be contemplating suicide. I hope that Facebook will find a way to accurately read between the lines. How embarrassing would it be for them if people start getting “Do you need help?” messages when they’re mentally healthy?
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This was a great read. I just heard about the Facebook thing not too long ago, and I think that this is amazing. There are so many kids especially that will post on social media without feeling that anybody is watching. Oftentimes, nobody responds. By Facebook doing this, it could protect them. I wonder exactly how Facebook helps though. It makes me wonder if it is enough. I wish there was a way for actual human intervention when that happens, like if there was a number saved for that profile, they could receive a call from a hotline.
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