{"id":207598,"date":"2019-01-15T07:00:10","date_gmt":"2019-01-15T09:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=207598"},"modified":"2019-01-16T21:14:41","modified_gmt":"2019-01-16T23:14:41","slug":"salam-the-female-robot-thatll-tell-you-about-refugees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/salam-the-female-robot-thatll-tell-you-about-refugees\/","title":{"rendered":"Salam: the female robot that\u2019ll tell you about refugees"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 Salam, which is Arabic for \u2018peace,\u2019 is now the name of a Syrian refugee whose job is to tell people about the reality of those living in asylum. One thing about her is she\u2019s a robot: Salam Nuri is the name of the character that\u2019s been devised to interact with people on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mechamopaz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>, spreading information and raising awareness about the reality of people under refugee status.<\/p>\n<p>The project was developed and launched late last November by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.acnur.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">UNHCR<\/a>),\u00a0in partnership with Facebook and the University of Campinas (Unicamp). \u201cThe idea is to get people to realize the tough journey refugee families must take in their quest for safety, often going on challenging paths in order to flee conflicts and persecution,\u201d says Natasha Alexander, who\u2019s in charge of the UNHCR\u2019s unit for partnerships with the private sector.<\/p>\n<p>The chatbot, which is how artificial intelligence technologies like Salam are called, will reply to contacts on the social media\u2019s messaging app. And her story isn\u2019t just made up. The robot\u2019s responses are based on accounts from actual Syrian women. Over the course of two months, the UNHCR collected stories from refugee women, creating a collective narrative which it said was validated by a focal group comprising five such women.<\/p>\n<p>Salam will tell users about her background in the city of Daara, Syria. \u201cDaara was picked because it was greatly impacted by war, therefore it\u2019s a good example of these people\u2019s journeys to safety,\u201d says Alexander.<\/p>\n<p>The character\u2019s avatar was created by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.unicamp.br\/unicamp\/noticias\/2018\/12\/11\/acnur-e-facebook-lancam-bot-em-parceria-com-unicamp?fbclid=IwAR0o-FkqAjuOp4MKW5GH1DtTF7trjiKTN0_bAoH2CBSQwn13rTPqS5lFB88\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Unicamp<\/a> sophomore Medialogy student B\u00e1rbara Daniel (pictured at the beginning of this story). The UNHCR first got in touch with Unicamp in July 2018, and the University held a contest organized by its S\u00e9rgio Vieira de Mello Chair\u2019s Culture Commission. B\u00e1rbara\u2019s illustration won the contest, and now it\u2019s the chatbot\u2019s depiction in the Facebook profile.<\/p>\n<p>Many are the people who relocate from Syria to Brazil. According to Brazil\u2019s National Committee for Refugees (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.itamaraty.gov.br\/pt-BR\/politica-externa\/paz-e-seguranca-internacionais\/153-refugiados-e-o-conare\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Conare<\/a>), by 2017 there were over 10,000 refugees living in the country, most of whom \u2013 39% \u2013 hailed from Syria. The UNHCR intends to keep Salam active throughout 2019 to keep spreading awareness about asylum and organization\u2019s work.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"credits-overlay\" data-target=\".wp-image-207543\">Unicamp<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Based on accounts from actual Syrian women and with an avatar created by a Brazilian woman, the \u2018chatbot\u2019 created by the UNHCR interacts with Facebook users.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2324,"featured_media":207543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3066],"tags":[1832,6887,6888,6892,471,32819,1829,6893],"class_list":{"0":"post-207598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-society","8":"tag-asylum","9":"tag-bot","10":"tag-chatbot","11":"tag-facebook","12":"tag-refugee","13":"tag-refugio-en","14":"tag-unhcr","15":"tag-unicamp"},"wps_subtitle":"Based on accounts from actual Syrian women and with an avatar created by a Brazilian woman, the \u2018chatbot\u2019 created by the UNHCR interacts with Facebook users. 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