Blog

Field notes

Practical guides on collecting, licensing, and using real-world AI training data, from the people who collect it.

Licensing7 October · 4 min
Licensing your video archive to AI companies: how it works and what affects the price

How archive owners license video, audio and text to AI companies, keep ownership, and what factors drive the price of a deal.

Read
Process16 September · 5 min
How to run a data pilot: quality checks before you scale

How to set up a small data collection pilot and the quality, metadata and consent checks to run before scaling up.

Read
Robotics data26 August · 5 min
Robot learning data formats explained: RLDS, LeRobot, and what to ask for

How RLDS and LeRobotDataset structure robot learning data, how they differ, and what to specify so your data loads on day one.

Read
Data quality5 August · 5 min
Why AI struggles outside North America and Europe, and what data fixes it

Research shows AI models underperform outside the regions their data comes from. Here is why, and what kind of regional data closes the gap.

Read
Compliance15 July · 5 min
Consent for AI training data: what to ask your vendor

What GDPR, CCPA/CPRA and Indonesia's UU PDP expect from consent, and the questions to ask any AI training data vendor.

Read
Process24 June · 5 min
Custom collection vs. off-the-shelf datasets: when each makes sense

How to decide between existing AI training datasets and custom data collection, the hidden costs of each, and when a hybrid approach wins.

Read
Process3 June · 5 min
How to write a data collection spec a vendor can actually deliver

What to put in an AI data collection spec, from task definition to acceptance criteria, plus a copyable template.

Read
Robotics data12 May · 5 min
What is egocentric video data, and why do robotics teams need it?

What first-person egocentric video is, how robotics and AI teams use it, where public datasets stop, and what makes it training-grade.

Read

Have a data question we didn't cover?

Send it over. If it's a project, we'll reply with a scope within two business days.

Get in touch