What is a data corpus for AI?
The short answer
A data corpus for AI is data treated as one set. In micro1's program it is a company's whole archive across its tools. micro1's page lists $100K+ to $1M+ tiers and 30+ employees, and it states no data-size threshold.
The word sounds academic, and it is. Companies now use it for something closer to a filing cabinet.
Where does the word come from?
The plural is corpora. In natural language processing a text corpus is a collection of language data. Researchers often annotate it, for example by tagging each word's part of speech, so a study or a model can use it (Wikipedia).
That sense is a collection built for a purpose. The business sense keeps the idea of one body of data.
What does corpus mean in micro1's program?
In an undated recorded forum talk, David Revland, who works on human data at micro1, used "corpus" for everything a company has stored: Google Workspace, Slack, project management tools and GitHub.
The corpus deal is the track where that whole body moves in one transfer, under a partnership in which micro1 says you keep ownership of the underlying data.
micro1's pages state no data-size threshold. Its current public criteria list 30+ employees, mature operations and primarily English documentation, with US companies prioritized.
The undated talk gave earlier size, staff and language figures, which are history. See micro1's requirements for both.
How is a corpus different from a workflow?
A corpus looks backward at records you already hold. micro1's workflows track produces new records, because employees grade an AI agent on live tasks.
In the undated talk, Revland also described a possible top-up about six months after a corpus deal, covering data created since. Our corpus vs workflows page compares the two.
Do other companies use the word?
Not in the pages I read. Troveo calls it company data exports. micro1's data partnerships page says operational data and datasets (all). If a buyer says corpus, ask what it includes and which tools are in scope.
What should you do before a corpus deal?
Count it by tool, since micro1's data manifest form asks for a rough size per tool. Then sort it by who holds the rights, because a corpus includes material that isn't yours to license.
The rights check asks whose records these are and what your contracts allow, and our managed readiness service works through the count with you without touching your data.
micro1 may pay us a referral fee if a company we introduce goes ahead with it. How we are paid
Apply to micro1's data partnership (paid link)micro1's own data-partnerships pagePaid link. How we are paid
Vaultfish helps you run the process. We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. If you need counsel who knows this area, we can point you to one. Ask for a referral
