For this post, I would like to focus on Mary Gray\u2019s video on the hidden cost of ghost work in algorithms. As she points out, even with machine learning techniques, there are still humans who perform the new work upon which artificial intelligence algorithms rely. This takes on the form of data entry, data labeling, and content review. Gray\u2019s main topic is what she labels the \u201chuman-in-the-loop\u201d services that require humans to work on the back end of the algorithms to ensure that they run smoothly.<\/p>\n
She goes on to describe how the process works; with \u201crequesters\u201d on the left, who then interact with the \u201cplatform\u201d through the internet, when finally any number of human workers with accounts to the platform supply the labor required to complete the initial request. It is through this process, Gary argues, that workers are devalued and isolated due to an over-reliance on code.<\/p>\n
Around the 6-minute mark, Gray introduces an \u201conline-to-online\u201d process in which companies access data online and contextualize it with other data sets to maximize profit. Thinking about the process(es) companies go through to obtain such data and contextualize it led me to wonder how future historians will grapple this same data.<\/p>\n
For future historians working on economic or labor issues of the early 21st<\/sup> century, what digital sources and data might they discover in their research? How will this information be archived, organized, and preserved over time? How will they be able to link the human experience (whether as worker or consumer) with the different processes the Gray addresses in her lecture?<\/p>\n In Laura Putnam\u2019s piece that we read earlier this semester, she explored the possible shadows that digitized sources cast over certain historical subjects. What can we say about the current digital processes that inherently cast shadows over the human laborers? Like historians now, perhaps future historians will get a glimpse into the conditions through ethnographies, personal testimonies, and second-hand accounts. Or perhaps the data collected, analyzed, and contextualized will be stored in a way that it will be accessible decades and centuries from now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For this post, I would like to focus on Mary Gray\u2019s video on the hidden cost of ghost work in algorithms. As she points out, even with machine learning techniques, there are still humans who perform the new work upon which artificial intelligence algorithms rely. This takes on the form of data entry, data labeling, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unit-5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.haa.pitt.edu\/digitalcriticalmethods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.haa.pitt.edu\/digitalcriticalmethods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.haa.pitt.edu\/digitalcriticalmethods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.haa.pitt.edu\/digitalcriticalmethods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.haa.pitt.edu\/digitalcriticalmethods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.haa.pitt.edu\/digitalcriticalmethods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.haa.pitt.edu\/digitalcriticalmethods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.haa.pitt.edu\/digitalcriticalmethods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.haa.pitt.edu\/digitalcriticalmethods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}