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arXiv:1810.03993cs.LG

Model Cards for Model Reporting

Margaret Mitchell, Simone Wu, Andrew Zaldivar, Parker Barnes, Lucy Vasserman, Ben Hutchinson, Elena Spitzer, Inioluwa Deborah Raji, Timnit Gebru

Abstract

Trained machine learning models are increasingly used to perform high-impact tasks in areas such as law enforcement, medicine, education, and employment. In order to clarify the intended use cases of machine learning models and minimize their usage in contexts for which they are not well suited, we recommend that released models be accompanied by documentation detailing their performance characteristics. In this paper, we propose a framework that we call model cards, to encourage such transparent model reporting. Model cards are short documents accompanying trained machine learning models that provide benchmarked evaluation in a variety of conditions, such as across different cultural, demographic, or phenotypic groups (e.g., race, geographic location, sex, Fitzpatrick skin type) and intersectional groups (e.g., age and race, or sex and Fitzpatrick skin type) that are relevant to the intended application domains. Model cards also disclose the context in which models are intended to be used, details of the performance evaluation procedures, and other relevant information. While we focus primarily on human-centered machine learning models in the application fields of computer vision and natural language processing, this framework can be used to document any trained machine learning model. To solidify the concept, we provide cards for two supervised models: One trained to detect smiling faces in images, and one trained to detect toxic comments in text. We propose model cards as a step towards the responsible democratization of machine learning and related AI technology, increasing transparency into how well AI technology works. We hope this work encourages those releasing trained machine learning models to accompany model releases with similar detailed evaluation numbers and other relevant documentation.

arXiv comments
Journal reference
FAT* '19: Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, January 29--31, 2019, Atlanta, GA, USA
DOI
doi:10.1145/3287560.3287596
Subjects
cs.LGMachine Learning cs.AIArtificial Intelligence

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Linked by 10 identifiable commenters in 11 comments across 10 threads, from Jul 2020 to Jun 2026.

Comments linking this paper, per year.

Discussed in comments10 threads

  1. Claude Fable 5 1 comment
    • Because it's not a user manual? The idea of a model card originated in 2018 (see https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.03993) as a summary of important facts about a model. At the time, this was typically an image classifier or tabular ML model. Model cards became an important concept in…

      aesthesiaView on HNParent context

  2. Grok 4.3 1 comment
    • The "model card" concept actually comes from a pre-LLM Google paper (https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.03993), where the example cards did fit on a single page. The concept quickly became a standard component of AI governance frameworks, and Hugging Face adopted it as a reasonable…

      aesthesiaView on HNParent context

  3. Claude Haiku 4.5 1 comment
    • For those wondering where the “card” terminology originated: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1810.03993 Maybe at 39 pages we should start looking for a different term…

      layer8View on HNParent context

  4. OpenAI o1 system card 1 comment
    • To my knowledge, this is the origin of model cards: https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.03993 However, often the things we get from companies do not look very much like what was described in this paper. So it's fair to question if they're even the same thing.

      ImnimoView on HNParent context

    • Had to track through five links to find out what a "system card" is. It's an instance of a "model card", some broad headings to be filled in.[1] • Model Details. • Intended Use. • Factors. Factors could include demographic or phenotypic groups, environmental conditions…

      AnimatsView on HNParent context

  5. Will scaling work? 1 comment
    • Please at least read the paper before appealing to authority. It is a well designed set of experiments that clearly demonstrates that the notion of a "phase change" (rapid shift in capabilities) as a popularized by many people claiming emergence is actually a gradual improvement…

      nsagentView on HNParent context

  6. AI Nutrition Fact Labels 1 comment
    • This is a nice concise format to display model cards (https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.03993). I like the style and the "standard". But, I do agree with other commenters that the 'nutrition' term is probably inappropriate. We get the style from the card - you don't need to carry the…

      binarymaxView on HNParent context

    • If this becomes something like huggingface for Computer Vision - awesome. For now, it's a shame model descriptions seem to often be lifted straight from README. Having a more standardized description, something like model cards [1] (CV example [2]) would be hugely beneficial…

      wolterlwView on HNParent context

    • The discussion mentioned the Tutorial on Fairness Accountability Transparency and Ethics in Computer Vision at CVPR 2020. The tutorial was recorded in three parts. The third part[1] includes solutions. These are either direct quotes or paraphrases of the bullet points contained…

      aaron-santosView on HNParent context

    • > In fact, this is exactly what the authors did. In fact, they did so after Timnit brought up her objection, and did so by taking advantage of Timnit's research (the model card they added is a direct result of research Timnit was involved with: https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.03993).

      joshuamortonView on HNParent context

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