The amazing appearing station - big data needs checking

By Brian Clegg

One lesson anyone who has played with AI and big data should learn is that you can’t trust it without having some checks in place. The technology can do the grunt work wonderfully – but then it needs verifying. This came to light when ChatGPT was caught making up references – but it can happen in a more subtle way too that is reminiscent to me of a flaw most of us never thought of when we saw Apple’s 1987 Knowledge Navigator video.

For those of us not ancient enough to remember it, Knowledge Navigator was a ‘view of the future’ video from Apple that predated iPads, folding screens and AI. In it, a distinctly smug academic uses a combination of AI, big data and a touch interface to link information about different events in the world to get the big picture. What said smug academic never does is actually check that what he is being shown is correct.

Of course Knowledge Navigator was fantasy – and for those of us who saw it when it came out, it was a genuinely wonderful peek into the future. (Bear in mind that Windows 3, the first really useable version of Windows didn’t come out until 1990.) But these days it’s easy to duplicate some of what it did using data tools such as ‘Google My Maps’ and a collection of locations to produce an impressive looking map. This is what was done using a list of UK stations published by the Daily Mirror, where ticket offices are scheduled to close.

When I came across the map online, I thought, out of interest, ‘I wonder if my local station (Swindon) is losing its ticket office. I admit I never use the ticket office, but it’s a big station and it seemed unfortunate if it were the case. Sure enough, as I zoomed in I saw an indicator by Swindon. But as I zoomed in further (see image at top), I noticed that it was actually to the east of Swindon. When I clicked on it, I was told that it was Wanborough station was closing.

As it happens, I used to live in the village of Wanborough. It has never had a station. The railway line doesn’t go particularly near it. But, like many villages, its name is not unique. There is also a village called Wanborough in Surrey between Aldershot and Guildford – and that does have a station. Whoever combined the list of places with a map didn’t bother to check for names that could be ambiguous.

I have no doubt that data tools and big data and AI will play bigger and bigger parts in our lives – but like ChatGPT’s dodgy references, the mystery of the amazing appearing station underlines that it’s likely there will always be a need for a degree of human checking to keep the algorithms and data tools on the right track.

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Now Appearing is the blog of science writer Brian Clegg (www.brianclegg.net), author of Inflight Science, Before the Big Bang and The God Effect.