Microsoft announced the development of an anti-child grooming AI technology codenamed Project Artemis. Together with Roblox, The Meet Group, and others, Microsoft is moving forward with the development of technology that will help protect children from sexual predators. Project Artemis’ development is being co-sponsored by the wePROTECT Global Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting the exploitation of children on the internet. And the Child Dignity Alliance, a conglomeration of individuals funded by the Human Dignity Foundation that are devoted to fighting child sexual abuse and exploitation.
Development following the start of a 2018 Microsoft “360 Cross-Industry Hackathon” focused on the technology industry’s efforts to keep children safe online. At the event, volunteers from seven technologies teamed up to develop tools to combat online grooming. The volunteers were divided into teams of three and spread out across the fields of technical and engineering, legal and policy, and operations and policy implementation.
A Microsoft blog post written by Jacqueline Beauchere explained that the engineering team was devoted to producing a working prototype that could detect child grooming in online chats. After analyzing tens of thousands of text conversations, the team created a tool that could automatically flag potentially dangerous conversations. The operations team brought reports of online child grooming to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and getting them to “prioritize such potential child endangerment to law enforcement.” Finally, the legal team built a catalog of “existing and potential statutory and regulatory impediments that are limiting companies’ abilities to protect their customers and the integrity of their services by utilizing detection algorithms.”
Microsoft And The Tech Industry Commit to Online Child Safety
Today’s announcement notes the developments made since the hackathon. Following the event, Microsoft formed a cross-industry team made up of members from several corporations. Members include The Meet Group, a social entertainment service that recently acquired the German dating app Lovloo, as well as Thorn, an international anti-human trafficking organization. Other noteworthy members include Roblox, an online multiplayer game, and KIK Messenger, an instant messaging app.
The wide berth of organizations that are working on Project Artemis is a good sign, as the development of the anti-child grooming technique is likely to have perspectives from people across the tech industry. Still, Microsoft notes that their efforts won’t be the end of predatory behavior online, and as such have made the tool available to inquire about how they can further improve it.
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Source: Microsoft
