whatevorama

No the repubs are not nationalistic. If they were they would not have been so eager to sell themselves to the Russians.

" It's a big leap to go from nationalism to Nazism."

No it's not. Nazi comes from German: Nazionalsozialismus. National socialism. Propaganda peeps love pulling that one.

Totally. The problem is that a lot of "AI" discourse makes the automatic assumption that humans want to interact with quote-unquote "machines". Humans want better user experience and humans do a good job interacting with other humans:). What's missing in the ai-bot conversation is the spark of creativity. There is the assumption that "AI" alone will create value, when value creation happens when user experience is new and exciting.

I am doing something like that myself as a side project, not exactly as "AI" more as voice interface responding to voice commands that uses humor and character voices to reply. In way, the problem of bots is actually "AI".

You can create a more flexible and lively experience if you put "AI" aside and really think of how people interact and create responses that are not based on "mean" values, but on real conversations. You don't even need the whole AI backend, you can just use javascript, audio files with or without accompanying text. Because so much of the conversation is bland, having a "voice" will make a huge difference.

AI developers should consider collaborating with writers and comedians:)

That is what I meant, yes this is the way. Creative and unexpected experiences.

I agree, I translated a fiction book and of course in that case that does not work. And it usually sounds bad and there are errors, but most people don't need super exact translations. What I meant by my comment was that it used to be that knowing many languages was a valuable skillset, i.e. "you can get a job easily". That is no longer true. One reason for that is the rise of "translation agencies" which have taken a big chunk off of the pay rate.

I am learning Chinese and a bit of Russian but it will take about three years to become fluent in these two since the alphabets are different.

Translation gave me the ability to see abstract patterns in text which is something I only realized when I was randomly attacked by what appeared to be bots on Quora. I could tell the language patterns buried underneath the non-sense and I could see through their code. This was useful but unexpected.

That is when I realized that language is related to form (syntax) as much as it's related to meaning and that's how it is connected to programming (or how I experienced this connection, I am not sure if there is an "official" explanation somewhere).

Good point there is greater opportunity if bots were able to use visuals as opposed to just words.

I can tell you I have worked as a translator and it used to be that the hourly rates were respectable. Nowadays you make the same as an admin assistant.

Translation is one job that has already been disrupted by technology. I ended up learning how to code and I am working on something now that uses language and programming (NLTK)and oddly, I found programming to be much easier than learning languages (I speak 6 human languages ) because it is a lot more predictable, stable and less dependent on context.

Translators should learn how to code. There is a lot of demand now for people who can do NLP.

Geez I guess no one bothered asking users if THEY like chatbots? IMO chatbots are the online equivalent of getting an automated response from a phone line. like calling CVS pharmacy "press one" for pharmacy, etc... You get the point of it, but it's basically a tool that only benefits businesses because the user experience is very poor. I wonder why no one tries to make this whole bot thing have more of a personality? It seems so bland. If they modeled it after ONE person instead of using "data" to sound neutral, they would be more successful.

I love dropbox but I ended up on google drive. I happen to have a business email address with them and I got 30G free then updated. Dropbox is better than Google but I was already on Google. If they offered some sort of package like Google does, they could have more people onboard.

I strongly disagree. There is HUGE value in VCs. The top ones are worth it. This is not serious. You can't have random people as shareholders. You'd be inundated with calls constantly from people who invested 500 dollars and now feel like they want to tell you what to do. No way.

I was going to focus on ReactNative my the more I read about the more I realized I am better off native, at least for now. Exactly because I do a lot of animations and I am all about interaction. If your product looks bad or "dated" it's not going to connect with users, not in the aread I am focusing on. If your product is about that extra pop, then I think Native might be best.

1-I am looking to apply to YC and the project fits 2 categories of among the "Request for StartUps" categories [AI and Mass Media], Is this ok if the product touches on these areas but is not defined by them specifically?

There is no exact category for product ( it detects forms of hate speech and allows users to "talk back" through various specific tools, using "ai"/ linguistics & intelligence,and elements of gaming and interactive storytelling on the interface.

2-Also, the "diversity" "Request for StartUps" category, does the YC mean the founder is "diverse" or the product is aimed at a "diverse" market? I am "diverse" but the product isn't particularly aimed at a "diverse" audience.

3-Also, (I think the answer is "no":) do you ever let founders take less money (say 60k for 3.5% instead of 120k for 7%)?

4-if the company/person does not have $$ and is not incorporated yet, how long does it take to get a minimum amount (just so you can deal with the expenses of getting there and being there initially) from YC once you arrive in SV?

5-Do you consider someone who is self-taught and built the prototype herself but does not have a "real" CS background or has ever worked as an "engineer", a "technical founder"?

Thanks!

I am the opposite of a Trump supporter but that's going too far. Why? Because I have a hard time believing that there are significant numbers of Trump supporters in the developer community. Developers need to understand logic pretty well that automatically eliminates 98% of Trump's claims.

You're better off saying the software can't be used to produce trolling bots. You have a better case there.