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Hunch.com answers "No" to the Question: Should I believe in God?

Hunch, the newest brainchild of Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake, "is a decision-making site, customized for you. Which means Hunch gets to know you, then asks you 10 questions about a topic (usually fewer!), and provides a result -- a Hunch, if you will. It gives you results it wouldn't give other people."

Hunch marries a decision tree model with machine learning algorithm which gets smarter. The resulting intelligence can make better decisions customized for you.

One of Hunch's early beta testers created the Super Question, "Should I believe in God?" The question caught on with a large number of Hunch's power users and has become a focal point of fierce debate within the closed beta. It turns out that no matter who asked Hunch if they should believe in God, Hunch's answer was always "No," even in cases where the power user's Christian faith was known to Hunch.

Christians within the closed community were quick to note this error to Hunch's developers, but instead of adjusting Hunch's intelligence to affirm a user's faith, the error was classified as user generated. This classification resulted in an uproar within the power user community and a particularly vocal group beta testers had their accounts suspended.

According to a source, not only have Hunch's developers refused to make modifications that bypass or alter Hunch's algorithmic intelligence, but they are preparing to use Hunch's complete rejection of "God" to market Hunch as a super intelligence with the tagline, Why pray for guidance when you can just ask Hunch?

Caterina Fake did not respond to our request for an interview and despite repeated attempts, we have yet to receive in invitation to join Hunch.
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Comments

  1. chris dixonMarch 31, 2009 at 3:08 PM

    This is Chris Dixon from Hunch. Not sure where you got this info. No one has been suspended from Hunch and the "Should I believe in God question?" most certainly often gives a "Yes" response. If you want an invitation to test it yourself I'd be happy to send you one.

    ReplyDelete
  2. EdwardApril 1, 2009 at 4:49 PM

    Addendum.

    ReplyDelete

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