BigML partners with WorkAround to provide datasets tagged and cleaned by skilled refugees. WorkAround, a crowdsourcing platform for refugees and displaced people, partners with BigML, the leading Machine Learning Platform accessible for everyone, to give more economic opportunities to end users.
In a world of increasing automation, it is easy to forget the human work that goes into making Machine Learning happen. Quality data is the linchpin to accurate outcomes from Machine Learning algorithms, but finding providers that can deliver clean and accurate data is challenging. However, WorkAround makes this possible while working with skilled refugees and displaced people who are otherwise unable to work due to government restrictions, lack of access to banking, and other barriers. With this partnership, BigML customers will enjoy the benefits of having their data cleaned and tagged without the burden of having to perform these tasks by themselves, thus being able to dedicate more time to other strategic tasks.
“I started WorkAround because aid is not a sustainable solution for anyone to move forward,” says Wafaa Arbash, WorkAround’s co-founder and CEO, who watched frustrated as many of her fellow Syrians fled conflict only to be left with few options for employment in host communities, despite having higher education and previous work experience. “People don’t need handouts, they need economic opportunities.”
Although the 1951 UN Refugee Convention signed by 144 countries grants refugees the right to work, the reality is that most host countries block or severely limit local access to jobs. “WorkAround basically saved my life,” said Oro Mahjoob, a WorkArounder since July of 2017, “it gave me a chance to work and earn enough to pay my rent with only having an internet connection and a device.”
Francisco Martin, BigML’s CEO emphasized: “BigML is excited to offer more ways to ensure high-quality data is made available for a variety of Machine Learning tasks executed on our platform. Our mission of democratizing Machine Learning is further extended to cover data preparation thanks to our partnership with WorkAround all the while contributing to a worthy social cause.”
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