4 ms·

"Timnit Gebru: Google and big tech are 'institutionally racist'" https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55281862 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55281862 It'

by atsjie 6y ago

"Timnit Gebru: Google and big tech are 'institutionally racist'" https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55281862 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55281862 It's good to be critical and reflect on the company you're working for. There are bad cultures and attitudes in any big company, not just tech. But if you're going to sprout your opinions publically about your (ex)-employer like that, sorry, but I wouldn't want her in my team. She sounds like too much of a headache to deal with. Her work must be truly extraordinary to warrent having that headache.

tootie 6y ago
I wouldn't want to run a racist company. And I wouldn't want to create phony pretense for firing someone if there was ostensibly valid justification they could have used.
nullifidian 6y ago
>Her work must be truly extraordinary I'm pretty sure her work as an ethicist can be summarized as "Any application of AI/ML must be stopped until it is absolutely GUARANTEED that there won't be anything that could be deemed discriminatory by proponents of critical race/gender theory." Which is obviously an untenable position for a tech company. I think she will be happy when we develop natural language understanding to the degree where we could implement an automatic critical theory censor, that would check for undesirable biases.
- cbozeman 6y ago
  > when we develop natural language understanding to the degree where we could implement an automatic critical theory censor, that would check for undesirable biases. That sounds like more of a nightmare scenario than having to deal with this person... Its hard to even know where to begin with how something like this could go off the rails easily.
  - fatbird 6y ago
    Indeed. Imagine how people of color feel at the possibility of an AI running ever-larger parts of society that has racism built right into it at the start because the people building it are blind to anything but the most obvious instances of it.
    - cbozeman 6y ago
      Like entirely too many people, you're confusing "racism" with "prejudice". They're not the same thing. Actual racism is very rare in America. Prejudice is commonplace and has a lot more to do with the inherent tribalism of humanity than it does actual malice for someone's "race". And to take it even further, I think if people were honest, what they really dislike is cultural differences that vary dramatically from theirs. To me this is just like trans issues... we'll never get anywhere significant with this stuff, because in order to come up with meaningful answers, you have to ask meaningful, hard questions. No one wants to ask these kinds of questions, because no one wants to have to deal with the answers that may come up, because that will also invite further study and further difficult, unpleasant conversations.
adamsea 6y ago
> She sounds like too much of a headache to deal with. Yeah and your average software engineer is roses. Difference is engineers positively impact the bottom line and society is less tolerant (empirically researched fact) of pushback from women or people of color. For sure there may be complications on both sides of this issue but let’s not pretend that this shit isn’t real.

by atsjie 6y ago

tootie 6y ago

I wouldn't want to run a racist company. And I wouldn't want to create phony pretense for firing someone if there was ostensibly valid justification they could have used.

nullifidian 6y ago

>Her work must be truly extraordinary I'm pretty sure her work as an ethicist can be summarized as "Any application of AI/ML must be stopped until it is absolutely GUARANTEED that there won't be anything that could be deemed discriminatory by proponents of critical race/gender theory." Which is obviously an untenable position for a tech company. I think she will be happy when we develop natural language understanding to the degree where we could implement an automatic critical theory censor, that would check for undesirable biases.

cbozeman 6y ago
> when we develop natural language understanding to the degree where we could implement an automatic critical theory censor, that would check for undesirable biases. That sounds like more of a nightmare scenario than having to deal with this person... Its hard to even know where to begin with how something like this could go off the rails easily.
- fatbird 6y ago
  Indeed. Imagine how people of color feel at the possibility of an AI running ever-larger parts of society that has racism built right into it at the start because the people building it are blind to anything but the most obvious instances of it.
  - cbozeman 6y ago
    Like entirely too many people, you're confusing "racism" with "prejudice". They're not the same thing. Actual racism is very rare in America. Prejudice is commonplace and has a lot more to do with the inherent tribalism of humanity than it does actual malice for someone's "race". And to take it even further, I think if people were honest, what they really dislike is cultural differences that vary dramatically from theirs. To me this is just like trans issues... we'll never get anywhere significant with this stuff, because in order to come up with meaningful answers, you have to ask meaningful, hard questions. No one wants to ask these kinds of questions, because no one wants to have to deal with the answers that may come up, because that will also invite further study and further difficult, unpleasant conversations.

adamsea 6y ago

> She sounds like too much of a headache to deal with. Yeah and your average software engineer is roses. Difference is engineers positively impact the bottom line and society is less tolerant (empirically researched fact) of pushback from women or people of color. For sure there may be complications on both sides of this issue but let’s not pretend that this shit isn’t real.