Bringing a Bot Home for the Holidays

By Olivia Cerci

Holiday chatter in the 21st century always seems sure to touch on a largely anticipated, or largely feared topic: jobs. This season, however, the families of Facebook employees have one extra member at their dinner table.

For Facebook employees, job discussion has largely evolved over recent years. The company’s diminishing reputation has led to public trust dropping by 66 percent. Reports say that Facebook employees have asked managers for tips to discuss the workplace with friends and family. Now, more than ever seems the least optimal time to be employed by the company.

Of course, Facebook dished out an interesting solution.

Introducing, the Liam-Bot.

Beginning on Monday coverage on the recently released Facebook chatbot took the internet by storm. The New York Times, first reported that the “Liam-Bot” is specially designed for Facebook employees to use for hard questions about the company. NextWeb states Facebook’s public relations teams created a custom AI-bot. The bot is intended to deflect criticism and provide employees with official company answers.

When questioned, the Liam-Bot often answers with links to Facebook blog posts or news releases.

The chatbot, software able to respond to text or speech, comes after a slew of other Facebook controversies. Business Insider notes that Facebook is at the forefront of election meddling and data surveillance concerns in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

A Facebook spokesman confirmed the existence of the Liam-Bot. He related that the company began testing the bot in the early spring months of this year, culminating in its recent release for Thanksgiving. Current speculation is unsure if the bot will be around for the entirety of the Christmas season.

Additionally, a handful of organizations have voiced discomfort that “in typical Facebook style, the company is tackling this problem through automated technological innovation instead of addressing the underlying human issue.”

Bullying the Bot

Online responses have ranged from critique to mocking. Some Twitter responses have described the bot as “dystopian” and “sad.” Other critics, however, have taken a lighthearted approach to tease the social media giant. Furthermore, Google’s senior manager Adrienne Porter Felt has created a bot of her own. Felt’s bot provides Facebook-esque answers to unrelated questions on relationships and family.

While Liam may have seemed a noble endeavor, the automated answers of the bot may have furthered public distrust. Relying on a bot to answer questions about one’s job begs others to question the savory nature of the corporation. Perhaps Facebook hoped to make a public recovery by bringing corporate answers to the dinner tables, but this bot may have botched up the hopes of achieving such a goal.

Image Credit: https://chatbotslife.com/the-philosophy-of-a-twitter-bot-832fe5918fd9

Homeschooler in the Real World

Emma Folts, a sophomore at Wheaton College, shares her experience about her transition into college and how homeschool has both helped and hindered her.
How has your homeschool experience benefitted you, especially in your transition into college?
I think the one thing that homeschooling did that was really helpful as I entered college was that it taught me time management. As a homeschooler I had the same freedom as a college student has to put things off during the day and go see a friend instead. Since I had that experience, I knew the cost of that.
Also, personal responsibility and accountability with assignments. I feel like a lot of the other students had more expectations for gentler grading and that the professor would give them retakes or extensions, but that wasn’t something that ever happened to me in school. That learning curve wasn’t added because I never had it the other way. I think another thing was that because I was homeschooled, I was familiar with the format of teaching and then studying on my own.
Did you see any issues with your transition socially?
I think that homeschooling had two ramifications for me socially. One was helpful, one was hurtful.
It was really helpful because as a homeschooler, I had spent a lot of time realizing and developing who I was as a person and learning to recognize people who were being themselves, and those were the people I sought out as friends. Friendship as a homeschooler takes a lot more investment. I knew I was choosier with my friends which made me a lot less anxious and a lot more content.
The only real negative impact of the social bit was that I was really used to getting to choose the time I got to spend with people. As a homeschooler I spent a lot of time with people, but that time was controlled by me. As a college student, I found that you can’t really control the time you spend with people and alone time is not really available. Learning to deal with that was a lot harder than anticipated.
Any last comments on homeschool and how it has affected your college experience?
I think homeschooling is really helpful, however it does take a slightly increased amount of advocacy with your peers when you’re entering into college. I think a lot of people come in with certain assumptions about homeschool, especially students. You’re going to get a lot of, ‘oh my gosh, you don’t seem like a homeschooled person!’ [You can’t] take that too personally and explain your experience so that friends can understand it’s an important piece of you, though it might not look like the homeschooling that they’ve seen.
My encouragement to anyone who is a homeschooler transitioning into college is to realize the benefit that you have having been homeschooled, and to realize that the bit of advocacy and explaining that you need to do with your peers is totally normal and that it’s not a big deal. Once they understand your experience, it’s not something I’ve experienced being looked down on for.