Re:We read the paper that forced Timnit Gebru out of Google
by thu2111 on Saturday December 05, 2020 @08:47AM
(#25314531)
Remember that outside the valley AI bubble Gebru is primarily famous for having publicly whipped up a mob against Yann LeCun and chasing him off Twitter by constantly claiming he was a racist sexist white man with no clue. Given that, it's maybe not a huge surprise that the tweets you're finding are more pro-Timnit than actually exists.
Another obvious problem: she keeps being described as a highly respected AI researcher, a leader of the field etc. Er, no. I read a lot of AI papers. I don't respect Gebru or the sub-field of AI ethnics much at all. What's happening here is simple: criticising a black woman in tech is impossible to do under your own name in corporate America, as radical leftists will immediately set out as a group to destroy you. The only acceptable position is to praise her and claim she's a genius. On HN and Reddit you can see what people really think and it's very far from that.
Another obvious problem: she keeps being described as a highly respected AI researcher, a leader of the field etc. Er, no. I read a lot of AI papers. I don't respect Gebru or the sub-field of AI ethnics much at all. What's happening here is simple: criticising a black woman in tech is impossible to do under your own name in corporate America, as radical leftists will immediately set out as a group to destroy you. The only acceptable position is to praise her and claim she's a genius. On HN and Reddit you can see what people really think and it's very far from that.