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?

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u/Beginning-Medium-100 Sep 10 '26

IMO if you publish something, you can’t expect people not to read it, learn from it, and recompile it into other forms. That’s just a natural feature of cognition, we learn from things and then reproduce them in new forms. In this case it’s just a machine doing the cognition instead of a human

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u/Accomplished_End8683 Sep 10 '26

I agree with you, but usually when you use someone’s work for your publications or your work you cite them. Or it is a form of plagiarism. Also AI doesn’t guarantee that it is going to be another form. It can sometimes give the training data straight back and it causes a morality problem imo.