A professor of the Faculty of Information & Media Studies! When you need to append 'studies' to the name of your department, it is one that will only attract the dregs of the academy. Victimhood is the currency these people transact in and a white male will, more than others, be willing to exchange a lot of US dollars for some victimhood.
A professor declined a $60K research award from Google
31–40 of 65 posts
Re: A professor declined a $60K research award from Google
#32“Luke Stark declined a $60,000 research award from Google in support of the ousted leaders of its ethical AI group.” Ugh...I’m all for standing up for what you believe in, but I think he was foolish for turning down this money.
He's an assistant professor, so although he's probably not rich , I imagine he has pretty good career prospects in general, and is probably financially secure already. I'm sure he could use the $60,000 (he was applying for it in the first place after all!) but I suspect that getting or not-getting that money isn't going to be really life-changing for him. So it doesn't seem so foolish to me. Besides, what's the point…
Also the PR and street cred from this move is likely worth more to him?
Re: A professor declined a $60K research award from Google
#33“Luke Stark declined a $60,000 research award from Google in support of the ousted leaders of its ethical AI group.” Ugh...I’m all for standing up for what you believe in, but I think he was foolish for turning down this money.
He's a non-tenured faculty at a school nobody heard of with an 'ok' publication track record and managed to put himself in a CNN article + HN frontpage.
I guess to him that's worth more than 60K.
Re: A professor declined a $60K research award from Google
#34From my understanding of the events, there was not really anything wrong with the way Google handled the AI Ethics researchers it fired. One threatened to quit unless a long list of demands were met. The other was exfiltrating company data. Why would this guy give up real money to defend them?
> Why would this guy give up real money to defend them?
Dr. Gebru has a lot of support among the professor's peers in AI ethics; accepting the award would paint a target on his back.
Edited for clarity.
Re: A professor declined a $60K research award from Google
#35“Luke Stark declined a $60,000 research award from Google in support of the ousted leaders of its ethical AI group.” Ugh...I’m all for standing up for what you believe in, but I think he was foolish for turning down this money.
He's an assistant professor, so although he's probably not rich , I imagine he has pretty good career prospects in general, and is probably financially secure already. I'm sure he could use the $60,000 (he was applying for it in the first place after all!) but I suspect that getting or not-getting that money isn't going to be really life-changing for him. So it doesn't seem so foolish to me. Besides, what's the point…
Asst. professor is tenure-track probably, but not yet tenured. So he will be out unless he can bring in the kickbacks (overhead) for his institution.
Re: A professor declined a $60K research award from Google
#36“Luke Stark declined a $60,000 research award from Google in support of the ousted leaders of its ethical AI group.” Ugh...I’m all for standing up for what you believe in, but I think he was foolish for turning down this money.
He's a non-tenured faculty at a school nobody heard of with an 'ok' publication track record and managed to put himself in a CNN article + HN frontpage. I guess to him that's worth more than 60K.
I don’t think so. The CNN article and HN front page (really?) will mean zero to the tenure committee that will decide his fate in the near future.
Re: A professor declined a $60K research award from Google
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
He's a non-tenured faculty at a school nobody heard of with an 'ok' publication track record and managed to put himself in a CNN article + HN frontpage. I guess to him that's worth more than 60K.
I don’t think so. The CNN article and HN front page (really?) will mean zero to the tenure committee that will decide his fate in the near future.
He might try to use his 15 minutes of glory to jump fence to a better institution.
And if the tenure committee has non-technical folks in it, they might be sympathetic to the fired Google researchers so who knows!
Re: A professor declined a $60K research award from Google
#38Equity is not equality.
Is it a coincidence that, in corporate settings, we've started using the word "equity" like this, when it is a synonym for "stock ownership"? I don't think so...
Re: A professor declined a $60K research award from Google
#39From my understanding of the events, there was not really anything wrong with the way Google handled the AI Ethics researchers it fired. One threatened to quit unless a long list of demands were met. The other was exfiltrating company data. Why would this guy give up real money to defend them?
> Why would this guy give up real money to defend them? Dr. Gebru has a lot of support among the professor's peers in AI ethics; accepting the award would paint a target on his back. Edited for clarity.
Dr. Gebru is a she
Re: A professor declined a $60K research award from Google
#40This is what is known as a principal-agent problem, where the agent (the professor) has the ability to make decisions for the principal (the university) but their motives are not fully aligned. The university may prefer to have $60,000 and a good relationship with a mega corporation but the professor probably benefits more from having his name out there and known as a crusader.