Since its launch in 2005, Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) has been a popular crowdsourcing marketplace, enabling businesses to leverage human intelligence for completing microtasks.
However, as artificial intelligence adoption surges globally, several compelling alternatives have emerged that can better serve companies‘ growing crowdsourcing needs in 2024 and beyond.
This 2200+ word guide will compare the top 3 Amazon Mechanical Turk alternatives against key criteria to help identify the right partner for your business.
The Growing Need for Crowdsourcing
As artificial intelligence and machine learning move into the mainstream, demand for training data to develop AI models is skyrocketing. This data is what fuels and sustains AI.
Much of this structured data required for AI/ML has to be created, cleaned, categorized and labeled manually. Crowdsourcing has emerged as the most scalable and cost-effective approach for obtaining this human-annotated data.
The AI crowdsourcing industry is projected to grow at a CAGR of 24.3% to $2.07 billion by 2027 according to Grand View Research.
Even Amazon Mechanical Turk has seen surging demand as evident in the graph below:
Data Source: Google Trends
But as interest rises, some key challenges have emerged with relying solely on Amazon Mechanical Turk:
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Work quality concerns – Studies have shown high variance in quality for tasks completed by MTurk workers
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Lack of transparency – Minimal insights provided into worker demographics, skills and languages
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Smaller crowd size – Estimated to be less than 100,000 active workers unlike claims of 500,000+
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Higher commission fees – 20%+ fees levied on tasks makes MTurk expensive for requesters
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Communication difficulties – Engaging directly with and managing crowd workers can be challenging
This drives the need for robust alternatives that can not only meet scale requirements but also ensure higher quality output.
Key Criteria for Evaluating Alternatives
When researching alternatives, here are some of the most important criteria to evaluate:
Data Quality – Testing and validation methods to ensure high-quality human-generated data
Crowd Size – Total number of available contributors and growth rate
Crowd Diversity – Geographic spread and languages represented in the workforce
Platform Security – Information security protocols and compliance certification
Crowd Vetting – Mechanisms to screen contributors and prevent fraud
Communication – Options to seamlessly interact with crowd workers
Pricing – Fee structure, commissions charged and availability of free trials
Compliance – Adoption of ethical practices around data rights, privacy and crowd treatment
Transparency – Insights available into workforce demographics, skills and performance
Keeping these parameters in mind, let‘s analyze the top alternatives to consider instead of Amazon Mechanical Turk.
Top 3 Crowdsourcing Alternatives to Amazon Mechanical Turk
Based on extensive research and evaluations, these three platforms have emerged as leading alternatives:
Next, we explore each option in more detail against the key criteria outlined earlier.
1. Clickworker
Clickworker is one of the largest and most reputed global crowdsourcing marketplaces.
History
Founded in 2005 in Germany, Clickworker has grown to over 700 employees supporting a crowd of 4 million+ independent contractors across 70+ countries.
Services
Clickworker provides managed crowdsourcing solutions for:
- Data collection and annotation for AI model training
- Market research and consumer surveys
- Content creation including writing, editing and transcription
- Web research and fact verification
- Data processing and enrichment
Key Strengths
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Large workforce – With over 4 million crowd workers, Clickworker offers significant scale and diversity
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High data quality – Multi-stage vetting, audits and AI monitoring ensures reliable human-generated data
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Information security – ISO 27001 certification demonstrates stringent protocols
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Crowd transparency – Platform provides detailed workforce demographics and statistics
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Competitive pricing – No markups or commissions, only pay for work completed
Limitations
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Language support – English proficiency required for contractors unlike localized platforms
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Brand recognition – Lower awareness compared to MTurk and Appen in the US market
Overall, Clickworker emerges strongly when evaluating the key selection criteria:
2. Appen
Founded in 1996, Appen leverages a crowdsourced workforce for providing AI training data solutions.
History
Appen was born in Australia and now has a global presence across 160 countries with headquarters in the US. They merged with Figure Eight in 2018.
Services
Some of Appen‘s core crowdsourcing services:
- Image, video, text and speech data annotation for AI models
- Model evaluation and analysis to gauge readiness
- Data collection for machine learning across industries
- Language localization and translation
Key Strengths
- Pre-annotated data – Offers pre-labeled datasets for common ML use cases
- Global workforce – Claims crowd of 1 million+ across 130 countries speaking 180 languages
- Information security – ISO 27001 certification provides data protection
Limitations
- Pricing – Feedback indicates higher cost of data annotation versus alternatives
- Crowd transparency – Minimal insights available into demographics and qualifications
Below is a summary SWOT analysis of Appen‘s capabilities as an MTurk alternative:
3. Telus International
Telus International provides crowdsourced AI data annotation services with a strong focus on security.
History
Telus International was founded in 2005 in Canada and acquired Lionbridge AI in 2020 expanding their crowdsourcing capabilities.
Services
Telus offers specialized services leveraging crowd workers:
- Multilingual data annotation for global AI model training
- Secure data labeling supporting compliance needs like HIPAA
- Structured data creation and enrichment aligned to client taxonomy
- Content moderation and classification for public platforms
Key Strengths
- Highly diverse workforce – 500+ languages and dialects supported
- Advanced security – Secure crowd vetting and multi-factor identity verification
Limitations
- Smaller workforce – Around 1 million crowd size is lower than alternatives
- Hands-on model – Less self-service, Telus oversees most projects
Below is a SWOT analysis summary of Telus International:
Comparing Crowd Size and Languages
To understand workforce scale and diversity, here is a comparison of the crowd size and language coverage across the shortlisted alternatives:
Data Source: Company Published Information
Clickworker features the largest global crowd with 4 million+ contributors, followed by Appen with 1 million+ and Telus with ~500,000 crowd workers.
In terms of language breadth and depth, Telus supports 500+ languages – significantly higher than others:
Data Source: Telus International
This makes their platform suitable for multilingual AI model training data needs.
User Reviews and Testimonials
Looking past product marketing claims, user reviews offer helpful unbiased insights into real customer experiences.
Here is a sampling of positive crowdsourcing platform reviews from enterprise users:
"We have used Clickworker for 3 different projects related to data verification, web research and surveys. In all cases, they delivered high-quality, reliable results saving us time and money. Their global workforce allows us to scale rapidly."
"Appen‘s pre-labeled datasets helped us accelerate computer vision model development by months. Their tight project management ensured annotation quality too."
"Telus International‘s secure crowdsourcing platform was critical for our healthcare ML project requiring HIPAA compliance. Their identity validation gave the assurance we needed."
By evaluating real customer feedback, businesses can determine which platform best aligns with their use case requirements beyond marketing promises.
Assessing Ethical Sourcing Practices
With crowdsourcing increasingly powering AI, ensuring ethical practices around treating crowd workers fairly has become vital.
Some key aspects to evaluate:
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Fair pay – Are minimum wages ensured for time worked? Is geo-appropriate compensation provided?
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Data rights – How is personal data handled? Do workers retain IP rights?
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Rating transparency – Is the rating system fair? Can workers appeal unfavorable ratings?
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Communication – Do workers have direct access to requestors to resolve issues quickly?
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Support – Is adequate project context provided to workers? Is help available when needed?
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Compliance – Does the platform comply with regulations like GDPR that protect worker rights?
Thoroughly vetting these parameters ensure you pick an ethical, compliant partner committed to empowering their global crowd workforce while delivering your project requirements.
The Growth of Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing has become pivotal to developing the AI systems transforming how we work and live.
The crowdsourcing industry is projected to grow to $2.07 billion by 2027 according to Grand View Research. Key drivers include:
- Surging demand for dataset collection and annotation for training AI algorithms
- Need for global and niche language data for multilingual applications
- Requirement for secure and compliant data sourcing across industries like healthcare
- Higher scalability, cost savings and speed offered by crowdsourcing workforce
As worldwide demand for AI solutions accelerates, best-in-class crowdsourcing platforms have emerged as mission-critical partners for fueling this AI revolution ethically and sustainably leveraging crowd power.
Choosing the Right MTurk Alternative
When evaluating alternatives to effectively replace Amazon Mechanical Turk, focus on aligning the platform capabilities to your specific project objectives and constraints.
Some key selection criteria:
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Quality – Rigorous protocols for ensuring high-quality training datasets
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Scale – Sourcing breadth and depth across languages and geographies
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Security – Protection for sensitive data via compliance certifications like ISO 27001
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Ethics – Fair compensation and support for maintaining an empowered workforce
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Technology – Platform security monitoring including AI misuse detection
No single platform may be ideal across all parameters. Analyze trade-offs to pick the right fit for each business case.
With trained models now the engine of digital transformation, partnering with the right crowdsourcing provider makes or breaks your AI success. Evaluate thoroughly and choose wisely!
FAQs on Crowdsourcing Platforms
Q. Does Amazon Mechanical Turk use AI or human workers?
Amazon Mechanical Turk employs only human crowd workers. However, some workers may in turn leverage AI to complete tasks which platforms are instituting safeguards against.
Q. What tasks are best suited for crowdsourcing?
Common tasks well-suited for crowdsourcing include data collection, content creation, classification, moderation, transcription, translation and more.
Q. How do crowdsourcing platforms vet data quality?
Platforms use processes like statistical validation, audits, worker ratings and AI monitoring to validate end data quality. Some also manually review before delivery.
Q. What are the pricing models for crowdsourcing?
Pricing models include pay per task, monthly subscriptions, data packages, managed services and more. Some platforms like Clickworker do not charge commissions.
Q. Is crowdsourcing compliant with data regulations?
Leading platforms invest heavily in compliance with regulations like GDPR, CCPA and ISO standards around data privacy and security.
The Future of AI Crowdsourcing
The crowdsourcing industry is rapidly evolving as demand for sourcing high-quality data for AI development surges globally.
Businesses that identify and partner with the right platform for their needs will secure valuable capabilities to build world-class AI while contributing to an ethical, sustainable crowdsourcing ecosystem.
With human intelligence more vital than ever in this AI-first era, the future is promising for both the platforms unlocking this potential and the businesses leveraging it via crowdsourcing.
