Data

Warning: This week's podcast episode features news articles which discuss suicide and mental health.

In this episode we have a slightly different format than our usual weekly pod. Don’t worry, we’ll still be talking about doom and gloom in tech and society in our constant search for glimmers of hope. But, we’re focusing specifically on data, because this month’s event is a collaboration with the excellent people at Open Data Manchester. So we’ll be talking about data being used to identify keywords that help identify those at risk of suicide, how data is used in the media and whether there’s a conflict between making things open and commercial viability. 

Joining host Sophie Walker are TFGL team members Hera Hussain and Greg Ashton, along with Open Data Manchesters ‘s Sam Milsom.

And we have guests, plural!

Pete Sherlock, Assistant Editor at the BBC Shared Data Unit. In 2015, he was tasked with setting up a unit to provide innovative data-driven content for the website. The unit went from strength to strength, producing a series of original news stories and features that resonated with the BBC’s online audiences.

And we have Annie Gouk, Deputy Editor of data and multimedia at Reach, whose titles include the Mirror, Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Echo and Birmingham Mail. She uses data every day to write national and local news stories as well as being the host of The North in Numbers - a stats based podcast that uses data to get to the heart of issues that affect the North.

This week’s topics:

Stat of the week: 

4 words and 1 emoji that can signify someone is a suicide risk

Charity/media news of the week:

Ex-love island contestant Molly-Mae to donate proceeds from new fashion line to Mind following the death of Caroline Flack

Are the public hypocrites when calling for greater protections for public figures:

And an interesting perspective

Rant/Provocation... of the week?

AI and open vs closed data - when is it appropriate? What are the misconceptions? Risks vs benefits? Who do we trust?

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615181/ai-openai-moonshot-elon-musk-sam-altman-greg-brockman-messy-secretive-reality/ 

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/16/ai-systems-claiming-to-read-emotions-pose-discrimination-risks 

https://blog.roboflow.ai/self-driving-car-dataset-missing-pedestrians/ 

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