(Via Waxy)
Do Algorithms Find Depression or Cause Depression?
Depression rates on Mechanical Turk appears to be 6x the norm:
When we discuss the issues inherent with AI and machine learning we usually focus on the perils of allowing computers to make decisions humans currently own. We rarely discuss the people whose work or attention create the algorithms themselves.
This is a mistake. Crowd work will only grow in the future, either through sharing-economy applications or online work. It’s existence without appropriate, modern regulation is worth discussion.
In an ironic twist, the decisions made by the powerless people on Mechanical Turk will be amplified in algorithms which will eventually have power over us all. Do the depressed judge depression or photos differently than the happy? If the people training these machines do not represent us, we will cede decisions to algorithms with which we will likely disagree. The case discussed here regarding Mechanical Turk is even worse: the work of sorting itself could turn a representative population into a depressed one, making skewed decisions unavoidable.
"The Business Implications of Machine Learning"
Finally got this out of my head:
You should pay attention to machine learning because it has been prioritized by the companies which drive the technology industry, namely Google, Facebook, and Amazon. The nature of machine learning — how it works, what makes it good, and how it’s delivered — ensures that this strategic prioritization will significantly change the tech industry before even a fraction of machine learning’s value is unleashed.
Curious to hear your thoughts.
(via Collectors Weekly)
