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croninsiglos t1_iwgq3ly wrote

People are often so concerned about bias in datasets while failing to consider the bias is real and tangible in real life numbers.

Obviously it needs to be taken into consideration when doing validation, but we shouldn’t let it stop us making a real difference in human trafficking right now.

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asbruckman OP t1_iwgrbgy wrote

The confusing thing is that there are two different meanings of "bias": bias in society and bias where the data set is literally wrong. That last one is what we're talking about in this paper.

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croninsiglos t1_iwgrpq8 wrote

I’m only referring to the latter.

If the real numbers have a bias then the dataset can, will, and should have a bias. It’s expected, but you have to watch for issues with it in validation. If there are then you can augment training but the raw dataset itself is never going to be balanced.

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petgreg t1_iwgw5h4 wrote

You are misunderstanding the word bias here.

We are not saying "more (insert race) get trafficked, so that's what the data shows, but Liberals are all like "oh no, we can't say that"

We're talking about the prevalence of intentional and unintentional data manipulation as people collect data, such as seeing what they want to see, selecting subjects based on their approachability rather than true random, selecting subjects based on ease of collating data (maybe all in one place, or all who have access to Internet, etc.)

That is something we'd want ai to correct for. It is not representative of the population (well, not perfectly).

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croninsiglos t1_iwgwlpk wrote

I’m not misunderstanding the word bias, just to be clear. I do this for a living.

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asbruckman OP t1_iwhvnl6 wrote

I think we're on the same page here. The point is that a lot of folks aren't doing the needed corrections you are recommending.

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OrbitalATK t1_iwgzqrl wrote

> Most research to date focuses on aiding criminal investigations in cases of sex trafficking

Can't say this is all too surprising.

> but more work is needed to support other anti-trafficking activities like supporting survivors, adequately address labor trafficking, and support more diverse survivor populations including transgender and nonbinary individuals.

Unsure as to how AI will solve any of these problems.

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[deleted] t1_iwi9vsa wrote

In the same way as science helps anything: by understanding problems and potential solutions/ameliorations.

AI is to date fancy partially automated statistical modeling.

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asbruckman OP t1_iwhvi5e wrote

After researching this topic for five years, I have concluded that making the AI better is NOT HELPING MUCH. I started working on this topic because I had a nice student who I wanted to help. But TBH I would never touch it again, unless the focus was on helping survivors.

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