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Why Tailored Content Moderation Artificial Intelligence Is Worth Investing In

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    So how do you calculate the price of custom content moderation with AI? At Besedo, we look at it from several angles: Volumes, the complexity of moderation actions needed, and languages. We build and tailor something bespoke for each client we do not share with anyone else.

    If you work in content moderation for a classified site or an online marketplace, you’ll probably hear lots of talk about machine learning and tailored AI. You’ll undoubtedly have wondered about its features, cost, and value.

    As a content moderation service provider, we’d gladly shout out positive things about tailored AI all day long (!). Still, we also wanted to give some background into why we believe it works, shed some light on alternatives, and give some insight into costs.

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    Photo by Gerard Siderius on Unsplash

    Cost and ROI comparison between tailored AI and generic ML models

    In a nutshell, tailored AI is a machine learning algorithm that’s created using clients’ structured and labeled data. You can teach your AI to learn specific moderation patterns by inputting this data. It can handle complexity, is self-learning, and gives you a much higher accuracy rate and automation levels. It’s much more meaningful and offers better results than generic, less reliable, and error-prone generic alternatives.

    At Besedo, for instance, with tailored models, we have accomplished automation rates of up to 90% with an accuracy level of up to 99% accuracy. That would not be possible using generic one size fits all models.

    While helpful when moderating something fixed – like language – generic AI can’t handle specific challenges, as it doesn’t learn in the same way as tailored AI. Say you want to set moderation criteria for profile pictures on a dating site. There are lots of things you need to do:

    • Ensure users are over 18.
    • Censor nudity.
    • Make sure there’s a face visible, no weapons are shown, and each picture is good quality.

    These are the requirements of a specific platform. Using several different generic AI models to try and moderate these criteria won’t work as well as a single tailored AI can. But you could always build your own model, right?

    While building your own tailored AI might seem simple and less expensive, it often becomes a costly distraction. Companies can spend years pouring resources into a setup and always need to get it exactly right. Creating powerful machine learning moderation models isn’t just a matter of putting a couple of developers on the task. It requires data scientists and semantic experts to make sure the AI keeps learning and performing better. Considering the ongoing cost and complexity, why create your own content moderation algorithm when expert companies offer tailor-made solutions? Unless you are a massive company with particular needs, you won’t develop your helpdesk or customer service tool. Then why go that route with content moderation?

    The price of AI moderation

    So how do you calculate the price of a tailored AI? At Besedo, we look at it from many angles: Volumes, the complexity of moderation actions needed, and languages. We build something bespoke for each client we do not share with anyone else. There is a setup fee to create an AI model for the client, which involves learning from available client data to build a specific model; monthly moderation fees, which we base on the projected volumes (starting at a minimum of 200,000 moderated items per month). The monthly moderation fee covers hosting, software licenses, and maintenance. Apart from this, there is a monthly professional fee, including updates, new performance improvements, and rules updates to ensure your automation rate and performance are continually improving. 

    Finally, we have a fixed support fee for 24/7 technical support.

    A lot goes into creating a tailored AI. However, it is still much more cost-effective than manual moderation, especially over time: and is far less expensive than developing your moderation model. You can’t compare a tailored approach to a generic one since that would be like comparing a chisel to a sledgehammer. You will not get the accuracy you need and will waste money, time, and effort.

    By our calculations, companies that choose tailored AI can save between 50%-90% on manual moderation pricing alone. Indeed that’s a worthwhile investment of time and money?

    This is Besedo

    Global, full-service leader in content moderation

    We provide automated and manual moderation for online marketplaces, online dating, sharing economy, gaming, communities and social media.

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