These things seem to play out like clockwork. Progressive companies hire social justice warriors into vague ethics or policy roles, let them hire their activist friends, shower them with fast track careers and promotions. It's good optics, the progressives like it because it makes them feel better about working at big techs. Said hires have thus far, as far as I can tell, not produced anything of substantial value to…
Can’t agree more with this comment, except that I don’t know anything about the person here, but I’ve definitely seen that happening. It exists in security as well. It’s easy to give up and say “they don’t care about security here”.
AI researcher Timnit Gebru resigns from Google
151–160 of 926 posts
Re: AI researcher Timnit Gebru resigns from Google
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
The next two tweets contain more: > However, we believe the end of your employment should happen faster than your email reflects because certain aspects of the email you sent last night to non-management employees in the brain group reflect behavior that is inconsistent with the expectations of a Google manager. > As a result, we are accepting your resignation immediately, effective today. We will send your final pay…
No, this is more like giving two weeks' notice and then being asked to leave the building immediately. It's not pleasant but it also isn't the same as being fired. Google called her bluff here.
Re: AI researcher Timnit Gebru resigns from Google
#153These things seem to play out like clockwork. Progressive companies hire social justice warriors into vague ethics or policy roles, let them hire their activist friends, shower them with fast track careers and promotions. It's good optics, the progressives like it because it makes them feel better about working at big techs. Said hires have thus far, as far as I can tell, not produced anything of substantial value to…
Can’t agree more with this comment, except that I don’t know anything about the person here, but I’ve definitely seen that happening. It exists in security as well. It’s easy to give up and say “they don’t care about security here”.
Even more than that, it's far easier in infosec to say "There is gatekeeping going on. I'm going off to make my own space where you're not invited."
Re: AI researcher Timnit Gebru resigns from Google
#154> So if you would like to change things, I suggest focusing on leadership accountability and thinking through what types of pressures can also be applied from the outside. For instance, I believe that the Congressional Black Caucus is the entity that started forcing tech companies to report their diversity numbers.
This probably shouldn't need pointing out, but appealing to your colleagues to put pressure on your own management via the U.S. Congress seems pretty obviously like a good way to get yourself fired.
If you're going to try to exert political pressure from the outside, you're going to wind up on the outside. I'm no big fan of Google's management, but I find it hard to fault them for this one.
Re: AI researcher Timnit Gebru resigns from Google
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
The next two tweets contain more: > However, we believe the end of your employment should happen faster than your email reflects because certain aspects of the email you sent last night to non-management employees in the brain group reflect behavior that is inconsistent with the expectations of a Google manager. > As a result, we are accepting your resignation immediately, effective today. We will send your final pay…
No, this is more like giving two weeks' notice and then being asked to leave the building immediately. It's not pleasant but it also isn't the same as being fired. Google called her bluff here.
Re: AI researcher Timnit Gebru resigns from Google
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
Her research work is well-known and has had an impact, whether you like it or not: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Timnit+gebru Edit: And to be clear, her most cited paper (> 1000 citations) had an impact on what some companies did: https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/8/21284683/ibm-no-longer-gen... What is disturbing here, from a researcher's point of view (even within a company!), is the lack of transparency on wh…
Citations by like minded publications hardly constitutes impact. Contrary to what most academics believe, impact isn't measured between the ears of individuals in academia.
Re: AI researcher Timnit Gebru resigns from Google
#157This title is not accurate; she told Google she would resign unless certain conditions were met, and her offer was accepted with immediate effect.
Re: AI researcher Timnit Gebru resigns from Google
#158These things seem to play out like clockwork. Progressive companies hire social justice warriors into vague ethics or policy roles, let them hire their activist friends, shower them with fast track careers and promotions. It's good optics, the progressives like it because it makes them feel better about working at big techs. Said hires have thus far, as far as I can tell, not produced anything of substantial value to…
Seems more like you just don't like progressive people for some reason.
Seems to be a very broad brush that you're painting with. "Progressive people" encompasses a wide variety of individuals and beliefs.
Re: AI researcher Timnit Gebru resigns from Google
#159Unrelated, but hiring by race or gender is inherently racist. We should hire by skill alone whether the person is a Lesbian Black Female, or a White Male
> We should hire by skill alone Since you can't actually calculate someone's skill, all you can do is hire on an attempted measurement of skill. And if you find reasons to think that your measurement of skill has inaccuracies, you'd probably be better off taking that into account when evaluating a candidate.
Re: AI researcher Timnit Gebru resigns from Google
#160> Have you ever heard of someone getting “feedback” on a paper through a privileged and confidential document to HR? Does that sound like a standard procedure to you or does it just happen to people like me who are constantly dehumanized?
She was told by her bosses boss to retract a paper. Whatever is it that paper, and whatever the reasons or the delivery method are, there is nothing somebody in her position can do about it, short of resign and, assuming the paper does not depend on proprietary information, independently publish. She instead decides to complain on an internal forum and call it 'constant dehumanization'. That is a serious accusation that she needs to back up, not just throw it around unsubstantiated.
This is the fundamental victim mindset of the social media woke: any setback is chalked up to identity based oppression. Reality check: everybody has setbacks, most of them unfair, or at least easily perceived as unfair, and definitely frustrating. Most have the decency to deal with it, pick up and go on without making a disgraceful spectacle by venting on social media. As it happens, I am aware of a similar situation between two people I highly respect at Google, where a VP told a paper author to abstain from publishing, in that case presumably to avoid spilling 'special sauce' information to the public. You never heard of it, and that's a good thing.
Something all of us need to ponder as we are ushered in the brave new social media era. Old school venting is ephemeral and limited to a small group of trusted confidents. Social media venting is permanent, and has the possibility to go viral. Proceed with caution.