Danish AI Model Predicts Life Events With High Accuracy, Raising Questions About Data Privacy and Discrimination
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Researchers in Denmark created an AI model called life2vec that predicts life events and health outcomes for individuals based on their data.
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The algorithm analyzes sequences of life events to predict outcomes like fertility, cancer risk, income level, or mortality. It has high accuracy, around 78% for predicting death.
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The model was trained on anonymized data from 6 million Danes collected by the official statistics agency. The researchers want to explore what's possible with this kind of data modeling.
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They argue this is an open, public counterpoint to algorithms built by tech companies to target ads and products. Others warn it could also enable discrimination by businesses.
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Some sites already offer unreliable "life expectancy prediction" services. The researchers say their model is still only for research purposes for now.