Putting science into data science

About the Site Images

If you are curious about the images on this site: Here we explain their “making of.” We wanted to create images that were about data, statistics and computation. We also wanted the images to reflect the qualities we’d like our statistical results to have: engaging, unexpected, and somehow beautiful. At the same time, the images should reflect the dangers of using technical methods and tools mindlessly and generating nonsense.

To get there, we started with traditional statistical graphs and maps generated with our GeoDa software. We then ran these images through an Artificial Intelligence (AI) application (dream.ai) with keywords to specify the desired outcome style. The generative art app uses artificial neural networks to create a new image based on similarities with existing images and text prompts.

Below are some examples of our inputs, the AI-generated results, and the edited versions we ended up using on this site. The results definitely surprised us, some were stunning. They captured a new way of looking at data, albeit one that also illustrates the limits of AI that Gary Smith highlights in AI Delusion: AI results with WOW effect can be absolutely meaningless since the machine has no “understanding” of what it’s depicting. You cannot trace how the image was actually created and thus cannot replicate the same outcome.