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Google told its scientists to ‘strike a positive tone’ in AI research

reuters.com

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Re: Google told its scientists to ‘strike a positive tone’ in AI research

#11

Post by xiphias2 »

dls2016 wrote: post #5
xiphias2 wrote: post #2

We already know that ,,self regulation'' doesn't work. It made sense to me that when I was working at Google I didn't talk bad about the company that I was getting my paycheck from. Alphabet is still a great company, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't need checks and balances from outside.

> I didn't talk bad about the company that I was getting my paycheck from Have you ever been in a union workplace?

No, but my work life was amazing.

There are important things to address at Google, like not having enough sitting toilets for men (there's 3 times as much for women even though there are much less women in the office where I was working) that an union may help with, but that's different from the product PR.

Re: Google told its scientists to ‘strike a positive tone’ in AI research

#12

Post by ruslanbogan »

drfuchs wrote: post #9

Consider the historical parallel to the tobacco industry’s research departments. And asbestos. And lead. And talc. And etc. The researchers found that the products were harmful, but their results were squelched. “Do no harm,” indeed.

The difference is that AI research teams are full of philosophy graduates who think if statements are racist

Re: Google told its scientists to ‘strike a positive tone’ in AI research

#14

Post by _cs2017_ »

IMHO, a scientist capable of striking any tone in their work, positive or negative, is doing marketing / PR work rather than science.

There's nothing wrong with that. Just like any other member of society, a scientist may want to contribute to a (for-profit or non-profit) organization of their choice, be it for material or spiritual rewards. However, I think it's important not to get science and marketing confused.

So, I think a more precise title would be "Google told its scientists to strike a positive tone when they use academic papers as a marketing tool".

Re: Google told its scientists to ‘strike a positive tone’ in AI research

#16

Post by daniel957 »

amitport wrote: post #4

tl;dr;: + "Google’s new review procedure asks that researchers consult with legal, policy and public relations teams before pursuing topics such as face and sentiment analysis and categorizations of race, gender or political affiliation, according to internal webpages explaining the policy." + "A senior Google manager reviewing a study on content recommendation technology shortly before publication this summer told a…

Why does your last bullet point make me feel like we read two different articles?

Re: Google told its scientists to ‘strike a positive tone’ in AI research

#17

Post by DrNuke »

2021 will be an interesting year and the feedback I got after my latest booklet / lit review aimed at Silicon Valley problems is just explosive: tightening regulation, legal actions, anti-monopolies concerted effort will ramp up dramatically at worldwide level.
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