Insights posts

Explore the latest in our mission to build a better world using data science and AI.

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insights

Life beyond the leaderboard

What happens to winning solutions after a machine learning competition?

insights

(Tech) Infrastructure Week for the Nonprofit Sector

Reflections on how to build data and AI infrastructure in the social sector that serves the needs of nonprofits and their beneficiaries.

insights

AI sauce on everything: Reflections on ASU+GSV 2025

Data, evaltuation, product iteration, and public goods: reflections on the ASU+GSV Summit 2025.

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10 takeaways from 10 years of data science for social good

This year DrivenData celebrates our 10th birthday! We've spent the past decade working to use data science and AI for social good. Here are some lessons we've learned along the way.

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What a non-profit shutting down tells us about AI in the social sector

When non-profits when they shut down, we should pay attention to the assets they produce as public goods and how they can be used to drive impact.

insights

On OpenAI's Entity Structure and Governance

What the shakeup in OpenAI's leadership tells us for the future of AI governance and the role of nonprofits in tech.

insights

5 ways organizations are using AI for climate action

How can we use data and AI to help combat the effects of climate change? This post walks through real-world examples from DrivenData challenges working with public, private, and social sector organizations.

insights

Harnessing LLMs

An initial guide to using LLMs productively as a data scientist. This post covers LLM APIs, prompting, use cases, and more.

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Data Tornadoes: What the flurry of AI ethics conversations misses

This era of generative AI is changing how we think and talk about AI ethics, but we shouldn't lose sight of what matters.

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What wins data competitions? (And what you can learn from it)

Learn what wins data competitions in 2022 and 2023, and how you can apply these insights to your own work.

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How Classifiable Is It? (Part 2)

Classification algorithms give us a lower bound on how well we can distinguish categories; maybe machine learning competitions give us a way to estimate an upper bound.

insights

How Classifiable Is It? (Part 1)

Classification algorithms give us a lower bound on how well we can distinguish categories; maybe machine learning competitions give us a way to estimate an upper bound.

insights

A brief introduction to machine learning and 3 ways to make it useful for social impact organizations

When social sector organizations think about data, the conversation often begins and ends with measuring impact. Here are some ways that social impact organizations can move beyond thinking about measuring impact and start using machine learning to transform how they operate.

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Why Elections Are a Terrible Showcase for Data Science

The 2016 election was a bad showcase for the powers of data science.

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