# Excavating "Excavating AI": The Elephant in the Gallery

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.01215 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.01215/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 2 Sep 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- ["Excavating AI" Re-excavated: Debunking a Fallacious Account of the JAFFE Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.13998/) (2021)
- [Grasping AI: experiential exercises for designers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.01282/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Two art exhibitions, "Training Humans" and "Making Faces," and the accompanying essay "Excavating AI: The politics of images in machine learning training sets" by Kate Crawford and Trevor Paglen, are making substantial impact on discourse taking place in the social and mass media networks, and some scholarly circles. Critical scrutiny reveals, however, a self-contradictory stance regarding informed consent for the use of facial images, as well as serious flaws in their critique of ML training sets. Our analysis underlines the non-negotiability of informed consent when using human data in artistic and other contexts, and clarifies issues relating to the description of ML training sets.