Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?
We created two AI systems that are able to communicate with users. People can ask questions about Russia and immediately get answers from two intellects. These two AIs were "brought up" by different media - one by Russia's independent TV-channel, the other - by a state TV-channel. Asking a question, a user becomes a participant of the experiment, because the result is unpredictable and it depends on how a question is asked. It provoked interaction between users and the AIs. People shared the results of communication on social media, and it led to many reactions and posts.
background
Russia’s media channels are subordinated to the government. They always present the news in the way that is beneficial to the government. They are completely “pro-Putin” and know how to brainwash people’s heads. There is a channel that is opposed to them; it is not financed by the government and doesn’t take instructions from anyone, so it can tell about things that are hushed up by the federal channels.
Obviously, the content, vocabulary and manner of news representation is very different. The worldview of a person who watches a different channel is different too.
The goal of the campaign was to increase awareness of the independent channel. It was also to reveal a deep mental problem of information environment as the crucial factor influencing people’s minds.
Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)
Machine Learning and Word Embeddings technology was used to reveal the difference between propaganda and news. Two AIs were “brought up” by a state and an independent TV-channels for 6 months. Then they were taught to answer questions about Russia, but only using the data they “had learned” while watching news programs of those channels.
Describe the strategy (20% of vote)
The chosen strategy was targeted at politically active people interested in obtaining true information. They actively use social networks and live in metropolitan cities. There’s no use in trying to impose an opinion on them, as they are intolerant towards direct advertising. They are used to making choices, comparing and experimenting on their own. That’s why they were offered to participate in an experiment that would show how a worldview is formed depending on the information environment. Asking a question, a person becomes a participant of the experiment, because the result is unpredictable and it depends on how a question was asked.
Describe the execution (30% of vote)
Two “pure spotless minds” were taken and fed daily news for six months.
A mix of innovative technologies (Google Speech-to-Text, Trained Neural Network, Question Answering Model (Q&A), ODQA, Word Embeddings) helped AIs absorb terabits of information. After 6 months, they could answer any questions. But only using the knowledge and vocabulary of the programs they had watched.
Using the website interface, everybody can ask a question to the AIs and get answers from them or read related answers. Also, one can vote for the system he/she likes more.
List the results (30% of vote)
The story rocketed around the Internet and media.
In one week
14 048 080 media impressions
193 427 visitors
93% voters favored TV Rain's AI
In one month
386% growth in number of subscribers