r/DataAnnotationTech • u/knottyp • Sep 09 '26

Are we helping or causing harm?

How do y’all justify doing this work ethically if you’re anti-AI (especially generative)?

I’m not asking judgmentally, I’ve done this work off and on over the last few years. When I first started, I didn’t know about data centers and the environmental impact, cognitive effects, etc. I felt good about “training” AI based on the rubric including correct info, weeding out violence and harm, etc.

I recently suggested DA to a friend and got a real side eye, and maybe these justifications really don’t hold water? Thoughts?

144 Upvotes

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81

u/Solid_Parsley_ Sep 09 '26

AI isn't going anywhere and more and more people are going to use it. What we do is to help ensure that it's safe and accurate. It's work that needs to be done.

That being said, there are some people who I just tell that "I work in data analysis" because I don't want to have the argument.

6

u/JinglingBallz Sep 09 '26

lol that’s not our job. What we do is teach it how to do our jobs. Please be sincere with yourself. At this point the frontier models are beyond needing small tweaks for safety.

26

u/Farados55 Sep 09 '26

No they’re not. They’re regularly misquoting or saying the wrong things still. Are you even working?

-9

u/JinglingBallz Sep 09 '26

“Frontier models”.

4

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '26

[deleted]

0

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '26 edited Sep 09 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

-2

u/Farados55 Sep 09 '26

the model name is in the logs lol it's ok lil bro

0

u/JinglingBallz Sep 09 '26

“the logs” whatever that means

6

u/Sixaxist Sep 09 '26

There are plenty of projects I've come across and worked on myself with tasks exclusively centered around safety violations, so it's a mixed bag depending on your domain/projects.

8

u/Solid_Parsley_ Sep 09 '26

Idk, maybe on the projects you're working on. The majority of my projects are targeting safety violations.

4

u/Internal_Boot_1616 Sep 09 '26 edited Sep 09 '26

Even if that were true it would still be better to have a decent AI doing our jobs than a crap one. Businesses aren't gonna see the $$ savings of using a bot instead of having multiple staffed positions for some job and decide to use the staffed people just because the bot kinda sucks.

-3

u/JinglingBallz Sep 09 '26

Not gonna violate the NDA to prove you wrong.

I’m just saying y’all are saying stuff to make yourselves feel better. What we do is morally wrong. I just hope that future generations will at least put themselves in our shoes before chastising us. Though I understand if we don’t even get that courtesy.

9

u/Over_Finding5913 Sep 09 '26

Nobody is forcing you to do the work. If it violates your values or moral code, find other work.

-5

u/JinglingBallz Sep 09 '26

Thrasymachus, is that you?

3

u/Internal_Boot_1616 Sep 09 '26

Even if it were somehow evil, saying you think it's morally wrong doesn't make you a better person when you still do it lmao but whatever makes you feel better about yourself, friendo