Data Is the New What? Popular Metaphors & Professional Ethics in Emerging Data Culture
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Abstract
A growing list of high-profile controversies involving the social impacts of artificial intelligence systems (AI), digital data collection and algorithmic analysis have forced difficult conversations around the ethics of data-intensive digital technologies and so-called "big data" research. These incidents are directly relevant to newly coalescing cultures of "data science," an emergent field which seeks both to interpret and capitalize on the creation, collection, and processing of knowledge through large collections of digital data, often in conjunction with particular techniques like machine learning (ML). The long list of recent public controversies, as Brian Beaton observes, lays bare data science's extant lack of direction regarding professional ethics or values.
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“Associating other words with AI—like intelligent, good, or society—creates notions of efficiency, neutrality, and progress, like how many technological metaphors (Stark and Hoffmann, 2019) “are myths that suffuse modern society” (Dalton and Thatcher, 2014) wielding power.”
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- Authors
- Stark, L., & Hoffmann, A. L.
- Venue
- Journal of Cultural Analytics
- Publisher
- CA: Journal of Cultural Analytics
- Published
- 2019-05-01
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 1
- ISSN
- 2371-4549 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2942659792
- Cited by
- 65
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 6
- FWCI
- 19.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Journal of Cultural Analytics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- SocArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- SocArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Big Data Technologies and Applications
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Digital Humanities and Scholarship
- Keywords
- data science, professional ethics, metaphor, big data, AI ethics, data culture, machine learning, digital data collection, algorithm analysis, social impacts of technology
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