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Building Better Datasets: Seven Recommendations for Responsible Design from Dataset Creators

Orr, Will, Crawford, Kate

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

The increasing demand for high-quality datasets in machine learning has raised concerns about the ethical and responsible creation of these datasets. Dataset creators play a crucial role in developing responsible practices, yet their perspectives and expertise have not yet been highlighted in the current literature. In this paper, we bridge this gap by presenting insights from a qualitative study that included interviewing 18 leading dataset creators about the current state of the field. We shed light on the challenges and considerations faced by dataset creators, and our findings underscore the potential for deeper collaboration, knowledge sharing, and collective development. Through a close analysis of their perspectives, we share seven central recommendations for improving responsible dataset creation, including issues such as data quality, documentation, privacy and consent, and how to mitigate potential harms from unintended use cases. By fostering critical reflection and sharing the experiences of dataset creators, we aim to promote responsible dataset creation practices and develop a nuanced understanding of this crucial but often undervalued aspect of machine learning research.


AI's craving for data is matched only by a runaway thirst for water and energy John Naughton

The Guardian > Energy

One of the most pernicious myths about digital technology is that it is somehow weightless or immaterial. Remember all that early talk about the "paperless" office and "frictionless" transactions? And of course, while our personal electronic devices do use some electricity, compared with the washing machine or the dishwasher, it's trivial. Belief in this comforting story, however, might not survive an encounter with Kate Crawford's seminal book, Atlas of AI, or the striking Anatomy of an AI System graphic she composed with Vladan Joler. And it certainly wouldn't survive a visit to a datacentre – one of those enormous metallic sheds housing tens or even hundreds of thousands of servers humming away, consuming massive amounts of electricity and needing lots of water for their cooling systems.


Music could be the secret to fighting off dementia, study says: 'Profound impact'

FOX News

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. There's nothing like a nostalgic song to transport you back to a special time and place -- and now a new study has shown that music could help protect those memories for a lifetime. Researchers at the University of Exeter discovered that people who "engage in music" over the course of their lives tend to have improved memory and better overall brain health as they age, according to a press release. The findings were published in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.


The Art Behind Supply Chains Is Front and Center at a Museum Exhibit

WSJ.com: WSJD - Technology

"It gives you a greater appreciation for everything that we use, how difficult it is to actually use that item fully and appreciate it," said Sam Lai, a physician from Orange County, Calif., after examining the 13-foot-by-13-⅓-foot "Anatomy of an AI System" on a recent visit to MoMA with his wife. Top news and in-depth analysis on the world of logistics, from supply chain to transport and technology. "We have three kids," Dr. Lai said. "It would be cool to be able to show them a picture like this when they're older and try to impress upon them exactly how significant our impact on the world is and how appreciative we should be of the things that we have." MoMA curators thought the piece by Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler would grab visitors, so they built a larger exhibit called Systems around the work, essentially treating the deep operations behind supply chains as art.


Why Artificial Intelligence Often Feels Like Magic

#artificialintelligence

In 2022, artificial-intelligence firms produced an overwhelming spectacle, a rolling carnival of new demonstrations. Curious people outside the tech industry could line up to interact with a variety of alluring and mysterious machine interfaces, and what they saw was dazzling. The first major attraction was the image generators, which converted written commands into images, including illustrations mimicking specific styles, photorealistic renderings of described scenarios, as well as objects, characters, textures, or moods. Similar generators for video, music, and 3-D models are in development, and demos trickled out. Soon, millions of people encountered ChatGPT, a conversational bot built on top of a large language model.


There's a woman haunting the internet. She was created by AI. Now she won't leave

#artificialintelligence

Loab was created entirely by artificial intelligence. An AI-generated character might not sound so remarkable in an era of deepfakes and all manner of digital alchemy. Generated by accident, she leaves an indelible trace on every image associated with her persona. She's often accompanied by extreme gore and violence, and it's not clear why. Not even those who understand this tech can explain what she's doing here. WARNING: The following content may be distressing for some viewers. Loab (pronounced "lobe") was first discovered in April this year by 31-year-old artist Steph Swanson, known online as Supercomposite.


The End of Manual Transmission

The Atlantic - Technology

This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. I drive a stick shift. Clutching and shifting in bumper-to-bumper traffic wears you out. My wife can't drive my car, which limits our transit options. And when I'm at the wheel, I can't hold a cold, delicious slushie in one hand, at least not safely.


How Architecture Teams Can Shift to an AI-First Data Strategy - The National CIO Review

#artificialintelligence

Making use of artificial intelligence takes more than just buying the technology and flipping the "on" switch. Companies need to understand the goals they want to accomplish -- and ensure that they have the right data to get there. "You can't expect the AI to come up with the solution for you," said Phil Crawford, Chief Technology Officer at Nashville-based CKE Restaurants. "You really have to think about your end goal. Are you trying to achieve speed? CKE operates thousands of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's restaurants around the world and wanted to use artificial intelligence to help with drive-through automation. That goal required the aggregation of different kinds of data from different sources, including drive-through timers, personnel information, sales data, and audio from the drive-through speakers. As a result, the first step the company took was to create a data lake to aggregate the data sources. CKE opted for Snowflake as their platform and began implementing it in the last quarter of 2021. "We couldn't skip it," said Crawford. "There's no other way to do it.


Stray's Post-Apocalyptic World Evokes the Walled City of Kowloon

WIRED

In Stray, you play as a cat. For many, this is a mic drop worthy of an instant purchase, and Blue Twelve Studio, the former Ubisoft employees responsible for the game, clearly know this--from the very beginning, Stray taps in shamelessly to the memeable antics of Felis catus. You press O to meow. You hammer L and R to scratch trees (and furniture). Interludes see you waltzing on a keyboard, prancing on pianos, and terrorizing board games. And while Stray's cat is just a ginger tabby, not as long or genetically mutated or struggling to breathe as more famous internet cats, it will, just as Untitled Goose Game's goose before it, still provide rich fodder for memes.