Latest news with #dataethics
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Internet infrastructure company Cloudflare ‘changes the rules of the internet' by blocking AI crawlers
Cloudflare, the internet infrastructure company that powers much of the web, says that it is 'changing the rules of the internet'. The company will block AI crawlers by default in an attempt to stop artificial intelligence companies from gathering data from across the web. Large language models, such as ChatGPT, require vast amounts of training data in order to improve their performance. Many of those companies have responded by using crawlers to access different web pages and store their contents so that it can be used to train those systems. Now, Cloudflare says that those AI crawlers will be blocked by default. That means those automated systems should not be able to visit pages without 'permission or compensation', it said. The publishers of those websites will be able to give AI crawlers permission to access their sites. And Cloudflare says that it will add the option for a 'pay by crawl' fee, which AI companies will be able to choose whether to pay. The use of online writing to train AI systems has become one of the most divisive issues of the ongoing era of artificial intelligence. A number of publishers have become locked in legal action against AI companies that they argue have wrongly taken their writing to train their systems. As that conflict increased, in 2023, Cloudflare initially said that it would allow websites to add a special tag to their sites to ask AI websites not to access them, but it was unenforceable. Last year, it started to allow websites to automatically block them, using technology that spotted such AI bots. Now, that latter tool will be on by default. Matthew Prince, Cloudflare's chief executive, told the New York Times that it was 'changing the rules of the internet across all of Cloudflare'. The move was made from a concern that AI companies scraping the web and accessing content freely would stop people being incentivised from publishing new writing or other forms of content, he said.
National Post
24-06-2025
- Business
- National Post
Not All Datasets Are Created Equal: New TELUS Digital Survey Shows Trust in AI is Dependent on How Data is Sourced
Article content VANCOUVER, British Columbia — As generative AI (GenAI) continues to accelerate across industries, trust in what type of data is used to train, evaluate and fine-tune AI models is emerging as a critical issue. A new TELUS Digital survey of 1,000 U.S. adults found that nearly 9 in 10 (87%) respondents ( up from 75% in 2023) believe companies should be transparent about how they source data for GenAI models. Additionally, 65% believe that the exclusion of high-quality, verified content, such as information from trusted media sources (e.g. New York Times, Reuters, Bloomberg), can lead to inaccurate and/or biased large language model (LLM) responses. Article content 'As AI systems become more specialized and embedded in high-stakes use cases, the quality of the datasets used to optimize outputs is emerging as a key differentiator for enterprises between average performance and having the potential to drive real-world impacts,' said Amith Nair, Global VP and General Manager, Data & AI Solutions, TELUS Digital. 'We're well past the era where general crowdsourced or internet data can meet today's enterprises' more complex and specialized use cases. This is reflected in the shift in our clients' requests from 'wisdom of the crowd' datasets to 'wisdom of the experts'. Experts and industry professionals are helping curate such datasets to ensure they are technically sound, contextually relevant and responsibly built. In high-stakes domains like healthcare or finance, even a single mislabelled data point can distort model behavior in ways that are difficult to detect and costly to correct. TELUS Digital works with a diverse network of experts to ensure datasets reflect a range of perspectives, reduce bias and align more closely with real-world use.' Article content In response to evolving industry dynamics, TELUS Digital Experience (TELUS Digital) (NYSE and TSX:TIXT), a leading global technology company specializing in digital customer experiences, has launched 13 off-the-shelf STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) datasets, including coding and reasoning data that is critical for LLM advancements. The datasets have been expertly-curated by a diverse pool of contributors, including Ph.D. researchers, professors, graduate students and working professionals from around the world. This gives enterprises access to high-quality data that has been cleaned, labeled and formatted for immediate integration into AI training workflows. Article content Why does human expertise matter? Article content In complex fields like STEM, trained experts bring deep contextual understanding of the subject matter to be able to more accurately interpret ambiguous inputs, apply consistent standards, and recognize subtle distinctions such as legal implications or scientific classifications. Experts are also better equipped to identify edge cases and help mitigate the cognitive biases that can undermine model performance. Article content Dancan, an AI scientist with a background in organic chemistry who is also a freelance data annotator for TELUS Digital, said, 'By annotating data properly, we're enabling AI to better collaborate with scientists, helping them streamline their processes and find solutions faster and at a fraction of the cost. Combining my background in chemistry with the potential of AI helps speed up the discovery of life-saving therapies, which is what I'm so passionate about.' Sourabh, a software engineer from India and freelance data annotator for TELUS Digital, said, 'Coming from a software background, I've always been drawn to the problem-solving side of AI. I've been able to apply that mentality to practical annotation projects such as solving coding challenges, where we provide step-by-step explanations that influence how models learn and function.' Article content Justin, a Ph.D. candidate in Chemistry at the University of Vermont, adds, 'I have found that high-quality data annotation in conjunction with a well-trained LLM can significantly lower the barrier to entry (or re-entry) for even the strongest, most well-qualified scientist to work on a new project. This is where the data annotation work that I perform with TELUS Digital can truly lead to more efficient and profound scientific innovation.' Article content More information: Article content With 20+ years of experience in data annotation, TELUS Digital has built a deep bench of global expertise across complex, high-context domains. In addition to its off-the-shelf datasets, the company delivers fully custom AI data projects tailored to clients' specific use cases, industry requirements, and linguistic needs. This includes multilingual and multimodal annotation and specialized support for sectors where accuracy and regulatory compliance are essential to model performance. Article content TELUS Digital's data annotation services are powered by Ground Truth (GT) Studio, its advanced, proprietary data labeling platform that brings together diverse, global human expertise with intelligent automation to ensure exceptional data quality, accuracy and efficiency. As part of TELUS Digital's end-to-end data platform: Article content Experts Engine connects vetted, domain-specific professionals to annotation and validation tasks, assembling tailored teams based on industry, language and project complexity. Fine-Tune Studio automates checks for accuracy, solvability, LaTeX formatting (used for math and scientific notation) and grammar, ensuring every dataset meets high technical and ethical standards. Article content TELUS Digital's off-the-shelf STEM datasets can be licensed individually or as a collection, and collectively include over 178,000 structured prompt-response pairs. For projects that demand deeper customization or use-case specificity, the company also delivers bespoke datasets aligned to specific use cases and regulatory requirements. To learn more about TELUS Digital's off-the-shelf datasets and how they support scalable, real-world AI applications, visit our Data & AI Solutions page. Article content Survey Methodology: The survey findings are based on a Pollfish survey that was conducted on June 9, 2025, and included responses from 1,000 men and women aged 18+ who live in the United States and indicated a familiarity with generative AI tools. Article content About TELUS Digital Article content TELUS Digital Article content (NYSE & TSX: TIXT) crafts unique and enduring experiences for customers and employees, and creates future-focused digital transformations that deliver value for our clients. We are the brand behind the brands. Our global team members are both passionate ambassadors of our clients' products and services, and technology experts resolute in our pursuit to elevate their end customer journeys, solve business challenges, mitigate risks, and drive continuous innovation. Our portfolio of end-to-end, integrated capabilities include customer experience management, digital solutions, such as cloud solutions, AI-fueled automation, front-end digital design and consulting services, AI & data solutions, including computer vision, and trust, safety and security services. Article content Fuel iX Article content ™ is TELUS Digital's proprietary platform and suite of products for clients to manage, monitor, and maintain generative AI across the enterprise, offering both standardized AI capabilities and custom application development tools for creating tailored enterprise solutions. Article content Article content Article content Article content Contacts Article content TELUS Digital Investor Relations Article content Olena Lobach Article content Article content
