AI researcher Timnit Gebru resigns from Google

Post by recursive » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 7:32 PM UTC

mcphage wrote: post #73

Tycho wrote: post #27

Title here is misleading (probably deliberate). The email that got this person “fired” was one that allegedly contained an ultimatum and a threat to resign. The employer then called her bluff and accepted her resignation with immediate effect.

> contained an ultimatum and a threat to resign. The employer then called her bluff and accepted her resignation A threat to resign isn't the same thing as resigning. And it seems you don't think so, either, since you characterize her threat as a bluff. It can't be both a bluff and a resignation.

Post by Copenjin » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 7:33 PM UTC

Post by uoaei » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 7:34 PM UTC

Tycho wrote: post #91

mcphage wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> contained an ultimatum and a threat to resign. The employer then called her bluff and accepted her resignation A threat to resign isn't the same thing as resigning. And it seems you don't think so, either, since you characterize her threat as a bluff. It can't be both a bluff and a resignation.

It's the ultimatum part that makes the difference.

Post by mellosouls » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 7:34 PM UTC

aylmao wrote: post #147

high_derivative wrote: post #90

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…

> Progressive companies hire social justice warriors into vague ethics or policy roles... > I think this is all a good thing because it may alert some executives to the price for hiring activists into research roles. Ah, yes. They're going to do their jobs and point out poor ethics and policy in _your_ company. I mean, they were hired for that, but if they could just look down and _pretend_ to care about the space th…

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 7:35 PM UTC

wil421 wrote: post #128

sudosysgen wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, reading the thread, it's pretty clear that she was correct. There is a second step of metaoptimization which incentives the researchers to encode algorithms to produce algorithms that more easily bias along a certain way. And she is correct that benchmarking models against biased datasets can lead researchers to bias for architectures that are in turn more likely to have a certain bias. I'm sure LeCun knows thi…

TBH it doesn’t matter if she is right or wrong. Her tone and angry writing is pretty harsh. The Twitter replies read a lot like her Google message thing. She’s got a lot of good things to say but needs to work on the delivery. I think she’s playing the victim and race card a lot more than she should. She’s got all the ammo she needs to make her arguments without the angry victim tone.