Can Google Use AI to Fix the Comments Section?

There are few tasks more Sisyphean in modern computing than comment moderation. For decades now, websites and social-media platforms have been tweaking comment sections in the hope of creating a space online where the chances of being called a "butthurt carelord" are vanishingly low. The problem they confront is that human moderation is slow and costly, especially at the scale most large companies are dealing with -- but automated moderation is unable to handle the complicated nuances of language and meaning that are necessary to determine whether or not a comment should be heard. Now, Google hopes that it's cracked the problem. Perspective, a new API from Google's Jigsaw division, goes public today -- launching with partners including Wikipedia and the New York Times, but available to any developer who wants to incorporate it into their website.