Can't decipher Trump-speak? Meet Margaret, the computer bot
WASHINGTON — Bill Frischling’s moment of inspiration came three years ago, when Margaret, his artificial intelligence bot, tried to transcribe a 127-word section of a speech by President Trump.
The passage, ostensibly commemorating a World War II battle, careened wildly. Trump shifted verb tenses and subjects without warning. Syntax was tortured and conjunctions collided. He added sub-clause to sub-clause, parenthetical to parenthetical, preposition to preposition.
By the time Trump mentioned winning for the fourth time, Margaret crashed.
“It was still trying to punctuate it like it was English, versus trying to punctuate it like it was Trump,” Frischling recalled.
So Frischling rebooted. He hired a computer expert with a PhD in machine punctuation to unteach Margaret normal grammar and syntax — and teach it to decipher Trump-speak instead.
Today Margaret better understands Trump’s speech patterns, and more importantly, better understands Trump — his tics, his tells, his tendencies and habits — than perhaps many Americans do.
Margaret — named for a character on the TV series “The West Wing” who can forge the president’s signature — doesn’t cheer, jeer or change the channel. It simply analyzes every word Trump says, and how he says them, deploying algorithms to glean insight into the president’s erratic nature from a database that stretches back more than four decades.
Among Margaret’s discoveries: Trump’s ability to fast-talk through an obvious falsehood is a sign that he is unbothered.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-05-07/cant-decipher-trump-speak-meet-margaret-the-computer-bot
