Sgt . Star is a 6 - foot-1 , clean - shaved , strong - jawed white-hot male , with heart that match the camouflage pattern on his combat uniform . His voice is deep , authoritative and cautiously enunciative . He seems to be in his XXX , but he is actually only about 7 age old .
Sgt . Staris not a actual someone , or at least not a corporal one . He is a chatbot — an artificial intelligence program designed to agree conversations — that was commission by the U.S. Army to help with recruitment efforts . He can make out questions and dispense solvent , verbally and in text , and also help the exploiter surf theGoArmy.comwebsite . According to selling materials , he has answer more than 11 million questions so far .
Last year , we file a asking with the Army to see if we could obtain him , or elements of him , through the Freedom of Information Act . More than 75 calendar Clarence Day have pass and the Army still has n’t responded , not even to say they ’re withholding the records .
rumination of military overhaul is one the most personal and life - altering decisions an American can undertake , with lasting consequences . We are interested in determine how Sgt . Star influence , what questions he was programmed to answer , and whether the Army has found the project efficient . As electronic privacy advocates , we also hope to influence what happens to the records of conversation Sgt . Star has with potential recruits .
As chatbots grow in popularity , especially in a commercial setting , Sgt . Star is often target to as a successful good example of how this engineering can be used as a replacement for human beings in providing customer divine service . The SGT STAR project ( officially , it ’s all - caps ) began in 2007 with a partnership between US Army Accession Command and the Spokane , Wash.-based company Next IT , which sell “ level-headed practical assistants ” to byplay . In the year since Star ’s inception , he has inflate beyond his GoArmy interface and potential recruits can now interact with him through Facebook or download him to their mobile sound via anapplaunched by the Army last year . Sgt . Star also makes visual aspect atpublic events , such as NASCAR race and Future Farmers of America gatherings , where users can speak to afull - size projectiondeveloped by theInstitute for Creative Technologies at University of Southern California .
We contacted software engineer Bruce Wilcox , two - meter winner of theLoebner Prize for Artificial Intelligence(a.k.a . “ The First Turing Test ” ) for advice on what to ask for in a FOIA request . Wilcox suggested we essay Sgt . Star ’s input patterns ( all the idiomatic expression and keywords Sgt . Star is pre - programmed to realise ) and the scripted output answer ( all the potential things Sgt . Star could say ) . In our FOIA letter , we quest these filing cabinet as they existed for each year between 2007 and 2013 , so we could equate how Sgt . Star ’s answers evolved to reflect developments in globular struggle , change to military benefit packages , and new policies , such as the repeal of “ Do n’t Ask , Do n’t severalise . ”
To cover our basis , we widened the FOIA request to include all contracts regarding Sgt . Star , all annual and quarterly reports that cite Sgt . Star , any audit , and any privacy policies associated with the program . We also asked for whatever analytical data might be available , such as the number of conversations Sgt . Star has had , the length of those conversations , the general geolocation of the users ( broadly ) , the number of conversation that result in direct communication with a human recruiter and any estimate of hands saved by using the AI .
Once we crafted the petition , the next challenge was to determine which agency was responsible for Sgt . Star . With the disestablishment of the Accession Command in September 2012 , it was undecipherable which division had inherit Sgt . Star . We started with the public affairs place of the U.S. Army Recruiting Command ( USAREC ) in Fort Knox , KY . From there , our request spring to the Army Marketing and Research Group , a new section produce in October 2012 . A representative initially suppose they would follow - up in a week and get us whatever they could . That was last November and we have yet to get any further reply , despite a follow - up letter we filed shortly after the Army missed the 20 - 24-hour interval FOIA reply deadline . We even sent the Army a banker’s bill that we were writing this blog post .
The Army ca n’t indicate that none of the records we request can be released . Sgt . Star ’s private responses are already publicly available on the cyberspace , provide a user go into all of the possible questions into the chat port , so there ’s no ground the script should not be available in conglomeration . Next IT use basic Sgt . wiz statistics in itsmarketing material . For example : the program has a 94 - per centum truth rate in answer questions and the middling user interacted with the program for 10.4 minutes . The fact that a secret company can get at this data point , but the public can not , erect questions about both privacy and government transparency .
When filing a FOIA petition like this , it ’s authoritative to anticipate how the release of information would serve the public interest . Military recruitment practices have long been a content of public tilt , whether it ’s regarding protest over recruiter on school day campuses or the use of video game to spur armed combat involvement in youth . Everyone from veteran soldier advocates to peace activists to budget watchdog could look back how the Army apply come forth technology to inform and persuade potential recruits . societal commentators could create satire through augmented rendering of Sgt . Star by plugging his input and outturn scripts into a in public usable chatbot engine . EFF is specially concerned with how personal data is collected , store and shared beyond what is disclosed in theonline privateness policyfor chatting with human recruiters . As government transparentness activist , we also want to assure that digital phonograph record stored in unconventional databases are in the public arena .
When the Army Marketing and Research Group was founded , the air division ’s music director , Mark S. Davis , saidits mission was to “ make the Army more transparent to the American populace ; explained in a way that is accessible and shows how truly over-the-top the U.S. Army and the American Soldier are . ” If he still trust that , his office should let the American public see how genuinely extraordinary the Army ’s virtual recruiter is by react to our FOIA request .
Free Sgt . Star .
UPDATE : After reading this C. W. Post , Zach Whalen , an assistant prof of English at the University of Mary Washington , claim it upon himself to ask Sgt . Star direct why the Army is ignoring EFF . tick out the reaction :
This billet originally appeared at The Electronic Frontier Foundation . It has been republish with permission .
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