IAEA Symposium on International Safeguards

Analysts versus Algorithms? Exploring the design of effective information analysis systems in the age of ‘Big Data’

6 Nov 2018, 11:07

7m

Boardroom A (Vienna International Centre)

Panelist (Panel Session) Leveraging technological advancements for safeguards applications (TEC) [TEC] Automating and Optimizing Data Collection and Processing at HQ

Speaker

Dr Matthew Moran (King's College London)

Description

In the age of ‘Big Data’, the potential value of open-source information for international security-related purposes is widely recognised. Of late, progress in this space has increasingly become associated with software that can expand our ability to gather, filter, interrelate and manipulate data through automated processes. The trend towards automation is both innovative and necessary. Yet for the foreseeable future at least, the effort to harness open source information for safeguards purposes will remain highly dependent on the nuanced judgement and expertise of human analysts. This paper will consider, at a conceptual level, the design of information analysis systems that exploit the strengths, and mitigate the weaknesses of both human analysts and software solutions, obtaining the best contribution from both.