Crowdsourced Big Data is Big Business for Appen
The term “metadata” refers to data that describes data, and it comes in quite handy when you’re training machine learning algorithms. Take for example a picture of a table with a plate of eggs, bacon, and toast along with a couple of hands holding utensils. We can easily label the individual objects – knife, fork, left hand, right hand, glass of orange juice, etc. – but we can also deduce more information from the more subtle details. The bright red nail polish, the wedding ring on one hand, smooth youthful skin, these signs could point to a younger married woman sitting down for breakfast.
A human might be able to arrive at this conclusion quite easily given the ability to connect the dots using context, but an AI algorithm will have a tougher time. However, if we label all those “clues,” then the machine learning algorithms can begin to learn how to interpret imagery in the same way humans can. One company that’s been printing cash lately by providing crowdsourced big data labeling services is a publicly traded Australian firm called Appen (APX). (Below numbers in USD unless otherwise noted.)
About Appen
Appen’s history extends back to 1996, but it was only in 2013 that they settled on the name Appen and then completed a successful IPO in January of 2015. Since then, Appen has worked to become a “global leader in the development of high quality, human annotated datasets for machin
