Synthetic Data: Training AI on Data AI Made Up
AI models are increasingly trained partly on data generated by other AI models. Here's why, and what the risks are.
Synthetic data is artificially generated information, created by another model or simulation, used to train an AI system instead of or alongside real-world collected data.
Why synthetic data is useful
It's especially valuable for situations where real data is scarce, expensive, or sensitive, such as rare medical conditions or specific accident scenarios for self-driving systems, letting researchers generate as many realistic examples as needed.
The real risk of relying on it too heavily
Training a model too heavily on data generated by another AI risks amplifying that earlier model's own blind spots and errors, a compounding effect researchers are still actively studying ways to detect and avoid.