What does Synthetic Data do?
Synthetic data is artificially generated to mimic the characteristics and structure of sensitive real-world data Synthetic data generated from computer simulations or algorithms provides an inexpensive alternative to real world data that’s increasingly used to create accurate AI models., but without exposing our sensitivities. For example, we might want the synthetic data to retain the range of values of the original data with similar (but not the same) outliers. Or we might want to retain a similar frequency distribution in the synthetic and original datasets. However, this becomes more complex when we start to consider interactions between fields, or different types of data such as free text and GPS locations.
The new era of Data
Data is the new oil in today’s age, but only a lucky few are sitting on a gusher. So, many are making their own fuel, one that’s both inexpensive and effective. It’s called synthetic data.
Synthetic data is annotated information that computer simulations or algorithms generate as an alternative to real-world data.
Put another way, synthetic data is created in digital worlds rather than collected from or measured in the real world.
It may be artificial, but synthetic data reflects real-world data, mathematically or statistically. Research demonstrates it can be as good or even better for training an AI model than data based on actual objects, events or people.
List of synthetic data startups and companies — 2022
- Gretel: vendor of a synthetic data generation library and APIs for developers and data practitioners.
- Betterdata: vendor of a privacy-preserving synthetic data solution for AI, data sharing, or product development.
- Mostly AI: vendor of Mostly Generate, a synthetic data generator that provides as-good-as-real, yet fully anonymous data.
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