University of Michigan partner sells student data for AI training
A partner to the University of Michigan tried to sell student data to organisations training AI models, causing controversy about the possible abuse of student privacy. Catalyst Research Alliance, which claims to partner the University of Michigan (UM) and North Carolina State University, was found to be hawking licenses for academic data from 65 speech events, 85 hours of audio recordings and 829 student papers for USD 25,000. The dataset in question is likely derived from two specific collections: MICASE (Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English) and MICUSP (Michigan Corpus of Upper-Level Student Papers). T he University later clarified that the papers and recordings referenced in the pitches had been voluntarily supplied by students, with signed consent, from two research studies that spanned from 1997 to 2000 and 2006 to 2007. UM also said it had severed ties with Catalyst Research Alliance. The data had been freely available to academics to help improve writing and articulation in education. T he fracas was seen to indicate poor governance and ethics at Catalyst Research Alliance. S ystem 🤖 Catalyst Research Alliance Operator: Catalyst Research Alliance Developer: University of Michigan Country: USA Sector: Education Purpose: Train AI models Technology: Da tabase/dataset Issue: Accountability; Ethics/values ; Privacy; Tr ansparency
- Date it happened
- 2024-02-01
- Organisation involved
- Catalyst Research Alliance
This incident was imported from AIAAIC and is used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Our additions to it — the structured fields, the translation, the checks against other reports — are published under the same licence.
This is a record of what was reported, not a finding that anyone broke the law. If it names your organisation and you believe it is wrong, the corrections process is free and open to everyone.