SGT STAR

SGT STAR, also known as Sgt. Star or Sergeant Star, was a chatbot operated by the United States Army to answer questions about recruitment.[1][2]

Background

After the September 11 attacks, traffic increased significantly to chatrooms on the U.S. Army's website, goarmy.com, increasing costs of staffing the live chatrooms. As a cost-cutting measure, the SGT STAR project was initiated as a partnership between the United States Army Accessions Command and Spectre AI, a wholly owned subsidiary of Next IT. Next IT, a Spokane, Washington-based company deploys "intelligent virtual assistants," using its software dubbed "ActiveAgent" which is a framework for functional presence engines.

Testing began in 2003, and SGT STAR launched to the public in 2006.[3] "STAR" is an acronym for "strong, trained and ready."[2] SGT STAR was launched as a chat interface on goarmy.com, but has since been developed as a mobile application,[2] as well as a life-size animated projection that has appeared live at public events.[4] SGT STAR can also interact with users on Facebook.[5]

FOIA request

In 2013, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a Freedom of Information Act request to learn more about SGT STAR, including input and output patterns (questions and answers), usage statistics, contracts, and privacy policies. They received these records in April 2014, after coverage from various media outlets and a tongue-in-cheek campaign to "Free Sgt. Star."[1][6][7][8]

References
  1. "Sgt. Star Wants You: Inside the Army's Multimillion-Dollar Chatbot". NBC News. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  2. "SGT STAR goes mobile; Prospects get answers to questions anywhere, any time". www.army.mil. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  3. Maass, Dave (18 April 2014). "Answers and Questions About Military, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence Agency Chatbots". Electronic Frontier Foundation. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  4. "Sergeant Star". ict.usc.edu. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  5. "An intelligent interface that is ready when you are". Next IT.
  6. Maass, Dave (31 January 2014). "Free Sgt. Star: Army Ignores FOIA Request for Artificial Intelligence Records". Electronic Frontier Foundation.
  7. "#18 - The Army's Robot Recruiter | On The Media | WNYC". TLDR. WNYC.
  8. "EFF lifts the lid on the secrets of the U.S. Army's chatbots". Digital Trends. 19 April 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
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