The theme of professional independence in the production of official statistics is a subject that will never go away from the preoccupations of the international statistical community. It would seem that at any time somewhere in the world someone (usually a government) is trying to interfere against it. Last year, the attempt by the Trump administration to add a citizenship question to the 2020 US Population Census made the news in the US and worldwide, a decision more related to political considerations than to technical ones. In recent times, Argentina and Greece have also grabbed headlines around the world for altering figures in order to present a more favorable image of their economies, and a recent post on this blog raised awareness of a similar situation in Montenegro.
Continue reading “Why is professional independence such a contentious issue?”Month: November 2021
They are what they’re taught: The need for AI data curation ethics
Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to a bunch of computer algorithms used to build machines capable of carrying out tasks that typically require human intelligence. These machines learn particular tasks based on the data we generate. Similar to an old saying “We are what we eat,” the performance of an AI system depends on how and what we “teach” it. Thus, the data collected and used are fundamental to training AI systems.
Continue reading “They are what they’re taught: The need for AI data curation ethics”