Google staff rally behind fired AI researcher

Re:Google staff rally behind fired AI researcher by joshuamorton on Friday December 04, 2020 @02:15PM (#25306430)

And nowhere did Timnit disagree that the cause he identified was a cause of bias in the system. Her contention is that there are others, and reducing the problem to just "get better datatsets" is a bad idea (and a way for researchers to abdicate responsibility).

To use an example that comes up: do we solve the ethical qualms of a system that predicts incarceration rate based on facial structure by getting a better dataset? Is it even ethical to attain such a "better" dataset, what does "better" even mean in the context?

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Re:Google staff rally behind fired AI researcher by jeffbee on Friday December 04, 2020 @03:11PM (#25307124)

Not sure why you are being downvoted. I see how reasoned your response is to what I said. It is a clear contrast to how the AI ethics researcher engaged in the Twitter thread. Two totally different hypothetical conversations:

  A: Training data is a cause of this bias
  B: But not the only cause
  A: True

vs.

  A: Training data is a cause of this bias
  B: I am so sick of this. You are not permitted to speak.
  A: I am deleting my Twitter account.

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Re:Google staff rally behind fired AI researcher by joshuamorton on Friday December 04, 2020 @03:18PM (#25307232)

Any support for Dr. Gebru seems to be against the HN ethos at the moment, I have some theories as to why ;)

> You are not permitted to speak.

I really don't think this is a fair reading of her tweet. I don't see any way to read her actual tweet claiming Yann can't speak at all on the subject. I do see a plea to engage more with domain experts (which to reiterate: my understanding is that Yann has a history of ignoring on the subject)

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Re:Google staff rally behind fired AI researcher by kenjackson on Friday December 04, 2020 @03:25PM (#25307343)

Reading these threads is really disappointing. I can in may ways already empathize with Timnit -- its exhausting seeing people who are typically bright just completely miss the point.

But if you change to a different topic like privacy then these same people really get all of this nuance that they completely seem to miss here...

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