[OSM-talk] Facebook mapping highways using AI in collaboration with OpenStreetMap

[James]

News outlet sensationalizes story to attract views to its website.....I
can't think of one example of this ever happening in the history pf the
planet



p.s. I dropped this: */s*

On Wed., Jul. 24, 2019, 5:32 p.m. stevea, <steveaOSM at softworkers.com> wrote:

> An article such as that proposed by John would almost be a master's thesis
> if done correctly and would likely put the typical BBC reader to sleep.
> Such an article would suffer from the constraints of concision typical in
> mainstream Western media, which means simply the topics would not receive
> the depth they deserve.  Such an article would need to address the history
> of OSM, the history of AI in OSM and its failures and successes (some of
> both, plenty of the former) and any attempt to "take the temperature" of
> "we in OSM" who feel one way or another about AI as a process for data
> entry would be almost horrifically complex in its vast spectrum of
> opinions.  This is not something, I suspect, editors at the BBC would find
> makes for interesting reading.  Unfortunately, what appears to be a
> sensationalistic, poorly researched, short, punchy story that sounds like
> "Facebook to the rescue of mapping in developing countries with AI!" is
> something an editor will (and did, apparently) green light.
>
> I do agree that the article seems quite glib in its treatment of the
> topic:  though to me it makes it sound like Facebook has magic bullets that
> can and will solve the challenges of the hard work of mapping, when we
> (humans in OSM) who do map know better (while AI is powerful and can help
> solve certain problems, it most certainly isn't a magic bullet).  I'd call
> the article an unfortunate example in the typical concision found in major
> news outlets which sensationalizes what is a relatively minor improvement
> by a company (Facebook) whose mere mention in an article is almost
> guaranteed to generate readership / eyeballs.  It is sad to see this
> obvious seduction and that many fall for it, but fortunately, a wise person
> once reminded us "you can't fool all of the people all of the time."
>
> SteveA
>
> _______________________________________________
> talk mailing list
> talk at openstreetmap.org
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/attachments/20190724/72ec94bb/attachment-0001.html>