Welcome involvement
Dear Editors,
Deep-time Digital Earth (DDE) is carrying out a broad programme of activities globally, including exploratory artificial intelligence (AI) – in this case called GeoGPT – in a cooperative effort with Zhejiang Lab, China. We welcome interest from the community and agree with Paul Cleverley and colleagues (Advancing transparent and ethical AI, Geoscientist 34(4), 2024) that now is the time to be both innovative and diligent in the development of these technologies. Several AI platforms show potential, but all require strict guidance.
At DDE we strive to be guided by feedback and high standards for ethics and best practice, as specified by agencies such as UNESCO. We are confident that our efforts conform to relevant legal and ethical obligations. We provide what we believe to be appropriate cautionary statements regarding our best efforts to ensure that training data are gathered according to guidelines, and also note that it is customary for platforms to specify that users have an obligation not to violate local laws. We are pleased to be providing accounts of training data, and to be pursuing arrangements for increased utilisation of more authoritative data, in accordance with publisher specifications.
We appreciate this forum for discussion, which supports the optimisation of our profession, are happy that GeoGPT is being tested by a broad array of users, and welcome increased involvement.
Prof Harvey Thorleifson, USA
President, Deep-time Digital Earth
(Letter received 17 Oct 2024)
