Sourcing datasets for artificial intelligence (AI) modules from public/open and free resources are among the most common questions we get asked during our consultation sessions. The entrepreneurs, AI specialists, and techpreneurs have expressed that their budget is a primary concern when deciding where to source their AI training data.Most entrepreneurs understand the importance of quality and contextual training data for their modules. They realize the difference that relevant data can bring to outcomes and results; however, in many cases, their budget restricts them from acquiring paid, outsourced, or 3rd party training data from reliable vendors and resort to their own efforts in sourcing data.In this blog post, we will explore why you shouldn’t settle for public data resources to save money because of the consequences they will create.Reliable Publicly Available AI Training Data Sources
Before we get into public resources, the first option should be your internal data. All businesses generate volumes of quality data they can learn from. These sources include their CRM, PoS, online ad campaigns, and more. We are confident your business has a repository of data in your internal servers and systems. Before outsourcing data for your models or utilizing public resources, we suggest using the existing information you are generating internally to train your AI models. The data will be relevant to your business, contextual, and up to date.However, if your business is new and not producing adequate data, or you fear there could be implicit bias in your data, try one or all three of the following public sources.1. Google Dataset SearchSimilar to how the Google Search Engine is a treasure trove of valuable information, Google Dataset Search is a resource for datasets. If you have used Google Scholar before, understand that its functioning is almost similar, where you can search for your preferred datasets based on keywords.Google Data Search allows users to filter through their datasets by topic, download format, last update, and other parameters to include only relevant information. The results include datasets from personal pages, online libraries, publishers, and more. The results provide a detailed summary of each dataset, including the owner, download links, description, publication date, etc.2. UCI ML RepositoryThe UCI ML Repository features over 497 datasets readily available to search through and download for free provided and maintained by the University of California. The repository offers a range of information regarding:Number of linesMissing valuesAttribute informationSource informationCollection informationCitations of studiesDataset characteristics and more