We Need to Talk About Synthetic Data

By Mikkel Krenchel and Maria Cury

Part I: The Undiscussed Data Revolution

(This is the first installment in a three-part series of posts on synthetic data. This post outlines the challenge and opportunity in the ongoing synthetic data revolution. In future posts we will dig deeper into the potential pitfalls of synthetic data, and initial reflections on what needs to be done to keep the synthetic data revolution on track.)

There’s a data revolution happening that nobody is talking about. It revolves around synthetic data. Unless you work in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), you may have never heard of it. As social scientists who work on technology, we are surprised, and frankly concerned, by the lack of mainstream debate within both the business and policy community on this subject. Because this rapidly growing form of data raises critical philosophical, ethical, and business questions that will shape our future.

Read the full article on our Medium page here.

Part II: The Reality Gap

In this segment, we dig a little deeper, and begin to examine some of synthetic data’s pitfalls and potential consequences.

Read the full article on our Medium page here.

Part III: Social Science in a Synthetic Data World

How do we avoid the pitfalls of synthetic data and create the transparency and data literacy needed for all of us to make sense of this new world of data?

Read the full article on our Medium page here.

[Banner image by Claudio Schwarz, via Unsplash]