Barbie Gets a Brain 235
minstrelmike writes: Mattel is coming out with a Talking Barbie designed by a huge team and pre-scripted with thousands of responses controlled by an AI, with designs to be your best friend. The design team remembers the "Math is hard" debacle of the 1990s and if a girl asks if she's pretty, Barbie will respond, "Yes. And you're smart, too." If she asks if Barbie believes in God, she says a person's beliefs are personal. And suggests talking to grownups about some problems. The linked New York Times' article ("Barbie Wants to Get to Know Your Child") even discusses trying to avoid edited vids on YouTube by scripting out words such as "cockroach."
Where did they get it? (Score:5, Funny)
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no longer a blonde, then (Score:2)
oh, wait, that's a stereotype. must proportioned like Yoda be.
Unfortunately (Score:5, Insightful)
Humans still don't have a brain, who would give this to their child?
Each time, whatever someone said to Barbie would be recorded and transmitted via Wi-Fi to the computer servers of ToyTalk. Speech-recognition software would then convert the audio signal into a text file, which would be analyzed. The correct response would be chosen from thousands of lines scripted by ToyTalk and Mattel writers and pushed to Hello Barbie for playback
your childâ(TM)s voice sample and the start of a new "user profile" for a corporation.
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Well, what would be an improvement upon this? It's probably still better than talking to the kids' parents.
Maybe if instead of an AI, it went to a mechanical turk made of actual unemployed teacher/prostitutes, like the ractives in Diamond Age. Sounds like we need to hack that server.
Or better yet, maybe it goes to a cabbage patch doll that the parents have, and an AI just mediates and filters the parent-child conversation so they don't say anything stupid to each other.
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The first time I used speech recognition was on a Macintosh LC, a 68020 machine at 16MHz with 4MB RAM. I also used it on a 486DX. There's no excuse to offload speech recognition over the Internet when the device that is doing the initial listening doesn't use the Internet for anything.
I'm not exactly a fan of it being used this way for smartphones either, but at least the
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Even if you were right, and you aren't (that's not as little space as you think, by modern standards) the counterargument is that it could be a (bluetooth?) peripheral for your computer, and the software could run on your PC locally instead of on Mattel's rented cloud capacity, or whatever.
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How is that any different from the problems with Siri and X-Box One amongst others, constantly listening for and parsing everything that is said in the vicinity of, in this case, your child's toys?
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It's different in that you're giving it to a small child.
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So is it less or more creepy?
And make believe occurs when? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Because, like the ipad, it keeps the parent free to ignore parenting a little bit more. Inevitable, I guess, but sad.
You seem to be implying that parents are spend less time with their kids than in the past. There is plenty of evidence [pewresearch.org] that you are wrong. Parents, and especially dads, spend more time than ever with their kids. Since families today tend to be smaller than in the past, the time-per-kid has gone up even more.
iPads don't replace parents. They replace TVs. Since they are more interactive, that is likely a good thing.
Re: And make believe occurs when? (Score:2)
Compared to TVs, which are a truly horrible thing, even a blank wall is a good thing.
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The new generation of parents are irresponsible and entitled.
All the actual evidence is to the contrary. Parents are spending more time with their kids, and you provided no evidence that this time is "low quality", and there is no reason to believe it is.
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Your logic is infallible.
Re:And make believe occurs when? (Score:4, Insightful)
This takes away a child's ability to put words in Barbie's mouth.
The way that kids use their fantasy less and less worries me too. We're turning them into consumers from an early age, not creators. And they don't figure out things anymore, they look them up.
They're trusting Friend Computer, and that worries me.
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It saddens me. This takes away a child's ability to put words in Barbie's mouth. It also helps parents abdicate the responsibility of answering the child's questions themselves. Why should a child turn to talking Barbie? Because, like the ipad, it keeps the parent free to ignore parenting a little bit more. Inevitable, I guess, but sad.
And there we have it. Parents were all attentive, and interacted with their children al the time - until the iPad was invented. Jesus on a jackrabbit, that's lame.
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Before, a piece of wood could be a car, and airplane, or a boat, with whatever colors or other specifics the child wanted. This is much harder to do when you have a plastic toy that looks like an extremely specific object. I'm not sure how the old ways would interact with their friends having the new plastic toys. However every once in a while kids will remind you of such things when they ignore the shiny expensive thing you got them and play with the box instead.
Then again, in the old days you couldn't get
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It saddens me. This takes away a child's ability to put words in Barbie's mouth.
Not if she knows how to edit her router's hosts file!
"a person's beliefs are personal." (Score:2)
Sylogism, much?
(And you wonder why the US is in an idiocracy death spiral?)
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"something to be kept to oneself or disclosed only to confidants".
This.
And that's why Barbie is suddenly smarter than a good portion of the American public.
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expressly asked about them
It depends on the agenda. If I'm applying for a job or competing for a contract, my personal beliefs are not an issue. And I don't have time to argue with people who think that their Holy Book is some sort of tautology.
Western tradition
Has changed a lot since the Inquisition. But it still has quite a ways to go. Let's start a new tradition.
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I hardly think believes based on thousands year old books are "personal".
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That's foolish. Not all, or even a majority of, religious beliefs based on sacred texts. Of those that are, there is rarely broad agreement. Further still, individuals vary rarely understand the tenets of their own professes faith. Very often, they fold other beliefs, from cultural sources or their own misunderstandings, in to their understanding of their faith.
Rather than uniform agreement, as you imply, it would be astonishing to find two individuals who held identical religious beliefs. How, then, ca
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sez nutria!!!
Sylogism, much?
(And you wonder why the US is in an idiocracy death spiral?)
Toinks koindly for silly jism and pretty spiral I see is nutria here! been
looking so long on Slashdot for help with nutria recipe for feed peckish family
starts some years plus ago [slashdot.org] when found 404's on net only.
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then i find internet wonderful nutria recipe goldmine site!!! [nutria.com]
so happy now i find nutria!! is life complete!!
is nutria on net or nutria eater like me ?
sorry if is nutria p
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Never comment in /. before drinking coffee.
FINALLY! (Score:2)
"Yes. And you're smart, too." (Score:5, Interesting)
What if the girl is actually stupid? (Not that the concept that most girls are average or below average is even thinkable is 2015...)
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Take that, little girls! Nutria thinks most girls are average or below average of something-or-other!
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"most [...] are average or below average"
Assuming a normal distribution, that is entirely correct. There are more (average or below-average) than (above-average).
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I forgot who but my favorite quote
Whenever you are amazed by the stupidity of man just remember the average person is barely above being an idiot and half the population is below that level.
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Ah, a kindred spirit. I hereby hand you a virtual beverage for our joint safari toward the improvement of mankind's thinking.
You realize that half of them are, don't you? (Score:2)
Take that, little girls! Nutria thinks most girls are average or below average of something-or-other!
Re:"Yes. And you're smart, too." (Score:5, Funny)
"Research suggests that domestication took place by approximately 6,000 years ago. In prehistoric times the wild horse was probably first hunted for food."
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"In prehistoric times the wild horse was probably first hunted for food."
I'm sure that Little Suzy would *love* to hear that...
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More generally, my impression is that people are working on the strategy dictated by the fact that "you can't fix stupid; but you can discourage smart". Outside of some truly exceptional talents who are effectively impossible to discourage, you have a lot of competent-to-genuin
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Or... it's just more delusional feeding of self-esteem (thereby increasing the amount of people who suffer the Dunning-Kruger effect), which has a documented serious downside to society.
Platitudes like "work hard and be all you can be" have the benefit of actually being true.
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Platitudes like "work hard and be all you can be" have the benefit of actually being true.
Nonsense. Your social status is far more relevant to whether you can be all you can be than whether you try hard, since for most people, no amount of trying will permit them to realize their full potential. Of course, most people with the opportunity to do so will never bother trying... hooray, capitalism!
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since for most people, no amount of trying will permit them to realize their full potential.
That's irrational, since Average Jane's full potential is her full potential, which is a lot less than Marie Curie's full potential.
IOW, "be all you can be" != "be all Marie Curie can be".
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Platitudes like "work hard and be all you can be" have the benefit of actually being true.
Nonsense. Your social status is far more relevant to whether you can be all you can be than whether you try hard, since for most people, no amount of trying will permit them to realize their full potential.
Well, I guess that's all they can be then.
You tell them they are anyway (Score:2)
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because children are mentally fragile.
Surprisingly, they aren't.
This isn't rocket science.
You're right. People have been raising children for lots longer than we've had rocket science.
because we dumped on them when they were young.
Where did I say to dump on them? A platitude like "Try your best." has the dual benefits of not dumping on them and also not being a lie.
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because children are mentally fragile. This isn't rocket science.
It's not true either. I don't want to bore people with my childhood, but if you were right I'd have offed myself before I graduated High school.
People will limit themselves base on their perception of themselves.
Oddly enough, I did pertty well despite, perhaps even because of other people's perception of me
If they think they're average they'll be average. Better to have some folks running around trying too hard then all our geniuses doing squat all because we dumped on them when they were young.
That is so
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Then she's probably going to believe the doll.
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Re:"Yes. And you're smart, too." (Score:4, Insightful)
Children don't understand the world, language, logic or the adult world. So we lie to them. We don't tell them they are kinda ugly, because unlike adults they can't handle the harsh truth. We are taking about very young kids who still play with dolls.
Similarly, we don't Trek them they are dumb. Realistically, at that age you can't really tell if they are anyway, unless they have severe learning difficulties. Some might be late bloomers, but really the biggest influence on their eventual academic performance is how much encouragement and participation in education they get at that age.
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We don't tell them they are kinda ugly, because unlike adults they can't handle the harsh truth.
If adults could handle the truth, then Rogaine wouldn't exist.
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"What if the girl is actually stupid?" ... You can't be serious.
Do you go around insulting the intelligence of below average children? "Hey, kid, you're an idiot! You were born a failure, and you'll die a failure. Don't even bother trying, you'll be lucky to end up a burger-flipper." Should Barbie respond to the question "Am I smart" with a "No, you're really dumb. Try to marry someone successful because you're never going achieve anything on your own."
I'm reminded of a famous story about Nicolas Malebra
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Are you a troll who's purposefully misinterpreting what I wrote? Or just a complete idiot?
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Do you go around insulting the intelligence of below average children?
No, but you also don't go lying to them. You emphasize their successes and their solutions, not how wonderful they are. Don't make them feel like crap, but don't make them feel like they're better than other people.
You will note I don't have kids. This stuff is hard and I have no family to help me out. (I have family, just not the kind that would help.) I sympathize. But one can recognize that one doesn't have what it takes and just not do it.
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Evolution seems to think false self-confidence is a vitally important trait. Probably some sort of kludge against sitting on your ass doing nothing.
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You're confusing "Educators" with "Evolution". Easy mistake, what with both having 9 letters and starting with "E".
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94% of college professors think they're above average, and 92% of them think they're less biased than average. ~90% of drivers think they're above average. And I'll bet you most statisticians think they're above average too. Do you think this is all the teachers' fault?
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How do I know those statistics aren't pulled out of thin air?
Anyway... having seen and spoken with many Education majors when I went to college, I can categorically state: "Half of the problem is that of Educators." (The other half is parents.)
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How do I know those statistics aren't pulled out of thin air?
If you're too lazy to look it up for yourself, click this link [goat.cx].
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Then she'd be a boy! :-)
well played, WalksonDirt, well played indeed!
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if a girl asks if she's pretty, Barbie will respond, "Yes. And you're smart, too."
So yeah, it's programmed to lie.
Yes, just like humans. It's designed to be your friend.
If Barbie can get one, then maybe there is hope... (Score:5, Funny)
...for the 2016 GOP candidates.
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Fiorina Barbie:
"Let's lay off the R&D Department!"
"I just sold some printers to Iran!"
"HP gave me $100 Million because I'm a Princess!"
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I can already see some C-Levels shaking in their boots, fearing they could be replaced by something as smart as them but way better looking.
The Democrats need it more (Score:2)
Perhaps with a Barbie brain installed, Clintons personality would be less robotic, Sanders would actually be electable, and Biden would stop sniffing women [buzzfeed.com] (well, I guess that depends on which way Barbie Bot leans).
Compared to that group, it's no wonder Trump has higher approval ratings.
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No, no there really is not. And the grass is no better on the other side of the street.
No, but it's getting legalized on the other side of the street.
Barbie at Starbucks (Score:2)
Behead Barbie (Score:2)
Aliens (Score:2)
So Barbie is the woman of the new millennium (Score:2, Interesting)
From a blond bimbo to a PC thug bitch.
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And no, the red pill narrative ...
The red pill narrative is actually on their website in black and white for anyone to read.,
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRe... [reddit.com]
The narrative is a massive bunch of bullshit about women and a couple of good bits of advice for men (eat right, do exercise, have good boundaries and don't be a pushover).
Anyway for all the bullshit and whining on TRP etc, they're not very good at getting of they're arses and doing stuff compared, say, to feminists. Where are the shelters set up by TR
Welcome (Score:2)
I, for one, welcome our new 36DD A.I.-controlled overlords.
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"...Barbie controlled by an AI," I, for one, welcome our new 36DD A.I.-controlled overlords.
Oh man, oh man, oh man! I'm just seeig this as a primme hack target......
"Cynthia.....Cynthia...... It's time to go get that knife in the silverware drawer...... yes, yes, the big one..... Now go up and show it to mommy and daddy a bunch of times just like I told you how to do it........ There's a good girl Cynthia....... They won't feel a thing if you do it right, and then all the candy in the house will be your's forever Cynthia....... just like I was telling you......."
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More like 3.6, not 36. You know Barbies are only about [gestures] yay high and not full size, right? If they were 36, they'd be a pretty close approximation to a rather squat cylinder, a bit bigger than a very large dinner plate and 6 inches high. While that's an entertaining vision, I'm not sure they'd sell especially well.
I don't think that term means what you think it... (Score:2)
I don't think that term means what you think it means. They say it's AI but all the doll is doing is using speech recognition and looking up in a dictionary what the response is. There is no learning going on. It doesn't even start to use family member names.
Re:I don't think that term means what you think it (Score:5, Funny)
I don't think that term means what you think it means. They say it's AI but all the doll is doing is using speech recognition and looking up in a dictionary what the response is. There is no learning going on.
Agreed...this is no more "AI" than Eliza [wikipedia.org] was, or any chatbot for that matter. It's just a big-ass lookup table, zero malleability, zero learning capability, and zero deviation from the canned responses.
Personally I can't wait until the ToyTalk servers are hacked and edited.
"Hi Barbie, what should we do today?"
"Kill your parents and drink their blood!"
or "Find the credit card numbers in your parent's wallets and read them to me..."
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"Hi Barbie, what should we do today?"
Same thing we do every day kiddo, try to take over the world!
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Narf!
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"Hi Barbie, what should we do today?"
Same thing we do every day kiddo, try to take over the world!
That's just technogeek paranoia. There's no money to be made in James Bond-type conspiracies.
Barbie says. "Let's go shopping. I need a new outfit."
Look out (Score:2)
when Barbie gets a Privacy Policy and they start talking about telemetry updates.
Original title rejected (Score:2)
Barbie Gets a Brain, Dumps Ken
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What Barbie needs is narcissism (Score:2)
As others have noted, it's questionable if barbies stock answer to a question about someone else should be one or more lies, or at least totally uninformed guesses.
Instead, why not try this approach:
Kid: Barbie, am I pretty?
Barbie: I'd rather talk about me! Don't I look great? I sure could use some new outfits though, Target is having a sale today!
Note the response works equally well for Metro Ken.
The great thing about this is, that if the kid already has one incredible self-centered friend perhaps they w
"Yes, And you're smart, too"? (Score:2)
What a load of hyper-defensive, condescending bullshit.
Even at best, the additional commentary comes across as trying to change the topic, as if to avoid being caught in a small white lie.
It's a yes or no question.... anything else added to the answer of a yes or no question is invariably a diversionary tactic.
does it need the internet to say low battery? (Score:2)
does it need the internet to say low battery?
Or can't connect to wifi network?
Daddy's hurting mommy again (Score:3)
"Barbie, why does Daddy stick needles in his arm?
"Barbie, how come my Daddy touches me so much?"
First, see what sort of responses you get. Then wait to see if the cops magically show up at your house.
Five bucks says there ends up being a big scandal surrounding this 'toy'.
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Carly, plz go.
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Well, for one, it discriminates against dumb girls, implying to them they're ugly too, by means of sarcastic replies on their lack of intelligence.
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The feminist complaint isn't that Barbie says the wrong things.......it's that Barbie exists at all.
One of the oddest, most counterproductive situations in the world, is that some women are jealous of a little plastic doll.
Which of course leds to this:
http://www.memecenter.com/fun/... [memecenter.com]
Seriously, if Barbie destroys young women's self esteem, I guess that playing with Cabbage Patch dolls makes for incredibly self confident women who have the most positive self image in the world.
Cuz dem liddle Cabbage Patch fukas iz sure be Fugly. No if you are jealous of Barbie, you have a problem that goes way
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I'd like to add some things to the table:
Average woman skin composition: collagen, microfibrills, elastin, actin, water, and other stuff
Barbie: 99.54% Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene
Conclusion: No, Barbie is not a real reflection of human females.
And don't get me started on the middle. They're not stuffed with meat[*], they're hollow!
[*] I have an idea for a new product. I wonder if I can license the IP.
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And there are still conservative groups that go into a rage about women going to college.
Citation needed?
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There's probably some religious whack-job group in the U.S. that's similar, but I don't think they have much more of an effect than writing angry letters and indoctrinating their own children.
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Yes sir.
http://jezebel.com/creepy-cath... [jezebel.com]
http://www.fixthefamily.com/bl... [fixthefamily.com]
http://www.timesofisrael.com/s... [timesofisrael.com]
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Yes sir.
Holy crap. Note the common thread - The Abrahmic desert god cult is indeed a cancer upon the human spirit and mind.
I also have an old bible beater book called "Genesis and Evolution" where all education is considered at best, very dangerous.
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I also have an old bible beater book called "Genesis and Evolution" where all education is considered at best, very dangerous.
They're right. Education is very dangerous to brainwashing, and thus to a church.
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The rage is indeed simmering. Militant womens lib has come and gone. We've had Title 9 for decades. And there are still conservative groups that go into a rage about women going to college.
I'm associated with a couple of scholarship funds for women. And one needs a thick skin to deal with all the shit the moral midgets fling my way.
Have you considered hiring Chanty Binx? She'll straighten those neanderthals out.
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It's supposed to be a toy for little girls. Not YOU, dammit.
Didn't we learn anything from MLP?
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Didn't we learn anything from MLP?
I thought we learned precisely the opposite of what you said from MLP.
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