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I'm not a scientist at all, but I am often involved in hand-holding scientists when it comes to dealing with computers. My impression so far is that science is
by crabbone 2y ago
I'm not a scientist at all, but I am often involved in hand-holding scientists when it comes to dealing with computers.
My impression so far is that science is plagued with deliberate and accidental fraud when it comes to data collection and cataloguing. Also, this is a spectrum, not two distinct things. I often see researchers simply unwilling to do the right thing to verify that the data collected are correct and meaningful as soon as "workable" results can be produced from the data. Some will go further and mess with the data to make results more "workable" though...
Second problem is understanding the data. Often times it happens that people who end up doing research don't quite understand the subject matter of the research. This is especially popular with medicine, where it's overwhelmingly common for eg. research into various imaging modalities to be done by computer scientists who couldn't find a liver cancer the size of a coconut in the sharpest textbook abdominal image.
My impression is also that by far these two problems outweigh the problems that could potentially be solved by adding AI into the mix. These are the systemic organization problems of perverse incentives and vicious practices, and no amount of AI is going to do anything about it... because it's about people. People's salaries, careers, friendships etc.
- jalman 2y agoYou've brought a good point. The exact difference between ML and AI is in the focus. ML is focusing on tossing data. Its main success metric is "miles traveled". AI is focusing on producing sense. Its main success metric is "value delivered". Therefore ML is tending to ship empty containers, aka "research to be done by scientists who couldn't find a liver cancer". Adding AI perspective into the mix could actually turn the things around.