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Industry is going to have to be careful not to eat their seed corn. There won’t be high quality candidates for the next round of hires if they remove the best p

by mrkstu 9y ago

Industry is going to have to be careful not to eat their seed corn. There won’t be high quality candidates for the next round of hires if they remove the best professors from circulation.

ragebol 9y ago
And triggering another AI winter? An AI winter because the current state of the art is valuable and applicable enough
emiliobumachar 9y ago
The tragedy of the commons applies in full force. Each company is just negligibly affected by their own behavior.
- Filligree 9y ago
  Each company is positively affected by their own behavior, and negatively by everyone else's. It's a tragedy of the commons, yes, but traditionally we've used government to handle these. Would that be desirable here? What form would it take, even?
mannigfaltig 9y ago
I doubt this will be a real problem because I've seen brilliant people excel in provincial universities with very little means and talent around. Internet education has gotten pretty good and probably reflects most of the experience of studying at a top university with the best researchers in the field. People might be 5% worse prepared. Nothing to be concerned about.
afarrell 9y ago
If industry wants better teaching, is acedemia the best set of institutions to support? To what degree is it true that focusing on teaching over research is a ticket to tenure denial? (If someone can provide broader context on https://tuftsdaily.com/news/2017/08/29/professor-computer-science-ben-hescott-denied-tenure-students-alumni-respond-negatively/ https://tuftsdaily.com/news/2017/08/29/professor-computer-sc... and http://tech.mit.edu/V130/N28/tenure.html http://tech.mit.edu/V130/N28/tenure.html, I would be grateful.)
ramblerman 9y ago
But precisely that makes this a problem that will solve itself, imo.
bob_theslob646 9y ago
What are you talking about eating their corn. Do you have an idea why they are "poaching or attracting talent"? 1) their are no conflicts of interest in relation to IP. 2) it's cheaper. Companies that give money for grants are bombarded with overhead costs where a large percentage of funds go nowhere near the intended project the grant was given for.(I forget the name and it varies by school) 3) Kids are payed better( non slave wages) 4) Professors get to work with large amounts of data What usually happens is that do their time,work with the data they always dreamed of, realize what they are doing, are happy or not happy get bored /pissed off,come back and teach. The entire academia system in the United States is so fucked behind belief, I really have no sympathy having been their myself.
peoplewindow 9y ago
You're assuming only professors can teach AI skills. These companies have managed to train their own workforces in many new technologies and paradigms they themselves invented, most notably, Google practically invented "Big Data" science all by itself (MapReduce, BigTable, Spanner, etc). It's perfectly possible to learn new skills outside of academia.
goialoq 9y ago
The professors work for the companies, they can can teach new employees.

by mrkstu 9y ago

Industry is going to have to be careful not to eat their seed corn. There won’t be high quality candidates for the next round of hires if they remove the best professors from circulation.

ragebol 9y ago

And triggering another AI winter? An AI winter because the current state of the art is valuable and applicable enough

emiliobumachar 9y ago

The tragedy of the commons applies in full force. Each company is just negligibly affected by their own behavior.

Filligree 9y ago
Each company is positively affected by their own behavior, and negatively by everyone else's. It's a tragedy of the commons, yes, but traditionally we've used government to handle these. Would that be desirable here? What form would it take, even?

mannigfaltig 9y ago

I doubt this will be a real problem because I've seen brilliant people excel in provincial universities with very little means and talent around. Internet education has gotten pretty good and probably reflects most of the experience of studying at a top university with the best researchers in the field. People might be 5% worse prepared. Nothing to be concerned about.

afarrell 9y ago

If industry wants better teaching, is acedemia the best set of institutions to support? To what degree is it true that focusing on teaching over research is a ticket to tenure denial? (If someone can provide broader context on https://tuftsdaily.com/news/2017/08/29/professor-computer-science-ben-hescott-denied-tenure-students-alumni-respond-negatively/ https://tuftsdaily.com/news/2017/08/29/professor-computer-sc... and http://tech.mit.edu/V130/N28/tenure.html http://tech.mit.edu/V130/N28/tenure.html, I would be grateful.)

ramblerman 9y ago

But precisely that makes this a problem that will solve itself, imo.

bob_theslob646 9y ago

What are you talking about eating their corn. Do you have an idea why they are "poaching or attracting talent"? 1) their are no conflicts of interest in relation to IP. 2) it's cheaper. Companies that give money for grants are bombarded with overhead costs where a large percentage of funds go nowhere near the intended project the grant was given for.(I forget the name and it varies by school) 3) Kids are payed better( non slave wages) 4) Professors get to work with large amounts of data What usually happens is that do their time,work with the data they always dreamed of, realize what they are doing, are happy or not happy get bored /pissed off,come back and teach. The entire academia system in the United States is so fucked behind belief, I really have no sympathy having been their myself.

peoplewindow 9y ago

You're assuming only professors can teach AI skills. These companies have managed to train their own workforces in many new technologies and paradigms they themselves invented, most notably, Google practically invented "Big Data" science all by itself (MapReduce, BigTable, Spanner, etc). It's perfectly possible to learn new skills outside of academia.

goialoq 9y ago

The professors work for the companies, they can can teach new employees.