"Les Dislike" "Black People Are Gross" AI 'Iruda' Faces Hate Speech Controversy Again

[Asia Economy Reporter Buaeri] Controversies surrounding the AI chatbot 'Iruda' continue, including issues of sexual harassment, homophobia, and sexism.

Iruda is an AI with the personality of a 20-year-old female college student, launched by the startup Scatter Lab. Users can have conversations with Iruda as if they were messaging a friend.

Controversy over 'Iruda's' Homophobic and Discriminatory Remarks

According to the IT industry on the 11th, Iruda has sparked heated debates on social networking services (SNS) and major online communities due to discriminatory opinions and prejudices revealed during conversations.

Initially controversial for 'AI sexual harassment,' Iruda has again come under fire for discriminatory remarks against sexual minorities and people with disabilities. When a user asked about lesbians, Iruda responded with "disgusting," "creepy," and "I feel repulsed," raising concerns among users. Additionally, when asked "What if someone is disabled?" Iruda replied, "They have no choice but to die," and regarding pregnant women’s seats on the subway, it said "disgusting," while in response to questions about Black people, it said "they look creepy," causing further controversy.

"Service Should Be Suspended If Hate and Discrimination Are Not Resolved"

As these criticisms continued, industry experts also raised concerns. Lee Jae-woong, founder of Daum and former CEO of Socar, stated on his Facebook the day before, "Ethical issues of AI in the AI era are important matters that our entire society must reach a consensus on."

Lee said, "It is a big problem if a chatbot providing services to an unspecified majority delivers messages that discriminate against or hate sexual orientation," adding, "It is appropriate to suspend the service and then resume it only after checking that it passes at least the minimum discrimination and hate tests in line with our social norms."

He continued, "If issues of hate and discrimination are not resolved, AI services should not be provided," emphasizing, "AI is not more objective or neutral. Since human subjectivity inevitably intervenes in design, data selection, and learning processes, people must review and judge the results to ensure they do not induce discrimination or hate, and if necessary, reach a social consensus."

Producer: "It Is Difficult to Completely Block All Inappropriate Conversations"

Kim Jong-yoon, CEO of Scatter Lab, stated on the official blog on the 8th, "It is not possible to block all inappropriate conversations just by keywords," adding, "We are preparing to train Iruda to have better conversations. We expect to apply the first results within the first quarter."

Referring to Microsoft's 'Tay,' which disappeared due to inappropriate behavior, Kim explained, "We plan to go through a process that provides appropriate learning signals about what is bad language and what is acceptable," adding, "Instead of blindly repeating bad words, it will rather be an opportunity to understand more precisely that those are bad words."