Interviews | Viewpoints | Real World Data Science

Democratizing Data: Using natural language processing and machine learning to capture dataset usage

AI

Data

Machine learning

Natural language processing

Real World Data Science speaks with Julia Lane, professor at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and visiting fellow at RTI International, about an initiative that seeks to improve public understanding of how datasets are used and the value they provide.

‘We absolutely have to transform and modernise our operation’ – US Census Bureau director Robert Santos

Data

Data privacy

Data literacy

Education

Public engagement

AI

Edited highlights from an interview conducted last summer with US Census Bureau director Robert Santos and colleagues, touching on pandemic challenges, the growing use of administrative data, data privacy concerns, data education and literacy, and how large language models might change the way we interact with official statistics.

Brian Tarran (with Anna Britten)

‘I was pretty clear in my mind that we were into a no-going-back situation’

Data

People

Innovation

Data literacy

Public engagement

Real World Data Science interviews UK national statistician Professor Sir Ian Diamond about culture change and innovation in the national statistical system post-Covid, building trust through transparency, and using AI tools to empower people to interrogate data.

‘I would like modellers to be less ambitious in developing monster models that are impossible to inspect’

Modelling

Public policy

Real World Data Science interviews Andrea Saltelli, co-editor of ‘The Politics of Modelling,’ about pandemic models, trust in science, and why we must seek to uncover the assumptions that shape model outputs.

‘Statistics and data science are at the heart of the AI movement – we want to be a strong voice in the debate’

AI

Events

Algorithms

Risk

Royal Statistical Society president Andrew Garrett talks AI model evaluation and risk, and why training data and model inputs deserve greater attention in discussions over AI safety.

‘Feelings about sharing data can be context and time dependent – you can’t just do one survey or focus group’

Data sharing

Data linkage

Public engagement

Real World Data Science sits down with Helen Miller-Bakewell of the UK Office for Statistics Regulation to talk data sharing and linkage in government – progress made, hurdles to overcome, the importance of public engagement, and why ‘social licence’ is key.

‘What if we try to bring R to the classroom? That was our wacky idea’

R

Education

Outreach

R-Girls is a new project aiming to introduce R into secondary school lessons – just not through computer science classes! Real World Data Science meets with one of the project’s founders, Mohammed Mohammed, to learn more.

The many ‘dialects’ of data visualization: Alberto Cairo and ‘The Art of Insight’

Data visualisation

Communication

In his upcoming new book, journalist and designer Alberto Cairo explores the idea of ‘data visualization as language’, one with many different dialects – statistical, journalistic, artistic, and so on. These dialects are not mutually exclusive, he says. So, what might they learn from each other?

London Data Week is almost here. What’s it all about?

Data

Innovation

Events

Communities

The first ever London Data Week runs from 3–9 July 2023. Real World Data Science meets with organisers Sam Nutt and Jennifer Ding to hear about their vision and plans for the week, and a selection of activities to look forward to.

‘I’m way more into prevention than cure’: Stephanie Hare on why we need a culture of technology ethics

Technology ethics

AI ethics

Culture

Regulation

Stephanie Hare, author of ‘Technology is Not Neutral’, talks to Real World Data Science about the ‘wicked problem’ of technology and AI ethics, and why laws and regulations are ‘necessary but insufficient’ to minimise harms. ‘We’re going to have to inculcate an entire new mindset,’ she argues.

US legislators get their data science act together

Data science education

Data literacy

Policy

A bill introduced in the US Congress wants to make funds available to develop data science and data literacy education across the United States. We sit down with education and policy experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Why open science is ‘just good science in a digital era’

Open science

Reproducible research

Real World Data Science speaks with statistician and data scientist Heidi Seibold about open science: what it means, the benefits of it, and how to move towards it.

How to ‘Escape from Model Land’: an interview with Erica Thompson

Modelling

Ethics

Author Erica Thompson talks to Real World Data Science about the ‘social element’ of mathematical modelling, how it manifests, and what to do about it.