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> It's also misleading to describe them as having been sacked Officially they were fired without cause. It’s important to compare how Google handled the emplo

> It's also misleading to describe them as having been sacked Officially they were fired without cause. It’s important to compare how Google handled the employment of their Ethics team with that of Anthony Levandowski, who was allowed to instigate an accident on the freeway on the job, left with a over-$100m bonus, and has thus far thwarted jail time and most of Google’s attempts to recoup what they paid him. Levandowski had lots of approval directly from Larry Page, and Page was aware of the risks. In contrast, Jeff Dean never respected the Ethics team in a similar capacity.

mellosouls 3y ago
I'm sure there's all sorts of comparisons you could make; the point remains the ethics team - whatever their merits as individuals and importance generally - were relatively unimportant compared to the engineers and scientists in this particular revolution, and describing them as having been sacked was misleading.
Simon_O_Rourke 3y ago
Whatever many many bad things Anthony Levandowski may have done, he picked up his own check in Google. The guy developed street view for example. Their AI ethics team appears, at least to a Google outsider, to engage almost exclusively in rent seeking behavior. I'm surprised many of them continue to pick up a paycheck.
- choppaface 3y ago
  Street View started before Levandowski ever joined Google, and his role in Street View was as an investor not an IC. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Street_View https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Street_View If there’s any rent-seeking behavior, it’s Levandowski’s church of AI https://www.wired.com/story/anthony-levandowski-artificial-intelligence-religion/ https://www.wired.com/story/anthony-levandowski-artificial-i...
  - Simon_O_Rourke 3y ago
    Perhaps the church of Al can throw a few bucks the way of the recently not-fired-but-no-longer-employed AI ethics crew, similar levels of grift going on in each.

mellosouls 3y ago

I'm sure there's all sorts of comparisons you could make; the point remains the ethics team - whatever their merits as individuals and importance generally - were relatively unimportant compared to the engineers and scientists in this particular revolution, and describing them as having been sacked was misleading.

Simon_O_Rourke 3y ago

Whatever many many bad things Anthony Levandowski may have done, he picked up his own check in Google. The guy developed street view for example. Their AI ethics team appears, at least to a Google outsider, to engage almost exclusively in rent seeking behavior. I'm surprised many of them continue to pick up a paycheck.

choppaface 3y ago
Street View started before Levandowski ever joined Google, and his role in Street View was as an investor not an IC. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Street_View https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Street_View If there’s any rent-seeking behavior, it’s Levandowski’s church of AI https://www.wired.com/story/anthony-levandowski-artificial-intelligence-religion/ https://www.wired.com/story/anthony-levandowski-artificial-i...
- Simon_O_Rourke 3y ago
  Perhaps the church of Al can throw a few bucks the way of the recently not-fired-but-no-longer-employed AI ethics crew, similar levels of grift going on in each.