^TagTimnit Gebru

^{Type
post

Author
Gary Smith
Date
December 26, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
Blaise Agüera y Arcas, Featured, Google, GPT-3, GPT-3 (Gary Smith's tests), LaMDA, Large Language Models (LLMs), Marvin Minsky, OpenAI, Timnit Gebru}

Chatbots: Still Dumb After All These Years

_{Intelligence is more than statistically appropriate responses} _{Gary Smith

December 26, 2022

7

Artificial Intelligence}

This story, by Pomona College business and investment prof Gary Smith was #6 in 2022 at Mind Matters News in terms of reader numbers. As we approach the New Year, we are rerunning the top ten Mind Matters News stories of 2022, based on reader interest. At any rate: “Chatbots: Still dumb after all these years.” (January 3, 2022) In 1970, Marvin Minsky, recipient of the Turing Award (“the Nobel Prize of Computing”), predicted that within “three to eight years we will have a machine with the general intelligence of an average human being.” Fifty-two years later, we’re still waiting. The fundamental roadblock is that, although computer algorithms are really, really good at identifying statistical patterns, they have no way of Read More ›

Engineers Meeting in Robotic Research Laboratory: Engineers, Scientists and Developers Gathered Around Illuminated Conference Table, Talking, Using Tablet and Analysing Design of Industrial Robot Arm

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 23, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy, Ethics

Tagged
Featured, Gary Smith, Jeffrey Funk, John Ioannidis (on Theranos), LaMDA (claims for understanding), LaMDA (kept under wraps), Large language models (lack of accountability), Margaret Mitchell, Salon (magazine), Satrajit Chatterjee, Stealth AI research, Theranos, Timnit Gebru}

At Salon, Funk and Smith Take On “Stealth AI Research”

_{All we know for sure about the claims about Google AI’s LaMDA showing human-like understanding is that, since 2020, three researchers who expressed doubt/concerns were fired} _{News

May 23, 2022

4

Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy, Ethics}

Yesterday at Salon, Jeffrey Funk and Gary N. Smith took a critical look at “stealth research” in artificial intelligence. Stealth research? They explain, A lot of stealth research today involves artificial intelligence (AI), which Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s CEO, has compared to mankind’s harnessing of fire and electricity — a comparison that itself attests to overhyped atmosphere that surrounds AI research. For many companies, press releases are more important than peer review. Blaise Agüera y Arcas, the head of Google’s AI group in Seattle, recently reported that LaMDA, Google’s state-of-the-art large language model (LLM), generated this text, which is remarkably similar to human conversation: Blaise: How do you know if a thing loves you back? LaMDA: There isn’t an easy answer Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
July 5, 2021

Categorized
Business and Finance, Social Media

Tagged
bias, Google, GPT-3, Megan Kacholia, Muslims, Timnit Gebru}

The Most “Woke” Company Could Contribute Most to Online Bias

_{Google has got to be one of the "Wokest" companies but there is a lesson in how Timnit Gebru got fired} _{News

July 5, 2021

4

Business and Finance, Social Media}

Here’s a paper worth revisiting, “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big?” (March 3, 2021), if only for the principal author’s trouble associated with publishing it. Although Google had hired Timnit Gebru to do ethics consultation, an executive, Megan Kacholia demanded that she remove all suggestion of her affiliation. In the ensuing uproar, Gebru ended up no longer employed there. The paper in question was, in Gebru’s mind, pretty unobjectionable. It surveyed the known pitfalls of so-called large language models, a type of AI software — most famously exemplified by a system called GPT-3 — that was stoking excitement in the tech industry. Google’s own version of the technology was now helping to power the Read More ›

Bangkok, Thailand 25 AUG 2020. Men hand using digital tablet for search information on Google. Wireless Smartphone technology with intelligence search engine.

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
February 25, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Ethics

Tagged
Alex Hanna, bias, Diversity in hiring, FAccT, Google, Margaret Mitchell, Marian Croak, Search engines and bias, Timnit Gebru, Tom Simonite, William Isaac}

Another AI Ethics Head at Google Gets Fired Over Diversity Issues

_{The AI ethics team and Google management may have very different ideas about what “ethics” means} _{News

February 25, 2021

5

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Ethics}

On February 19, Google fired Margaret Mitchell, the AI ethics co-lead at Google Brain. Mitchell’s co-leading colleague, Timnit Gebru, had been fired in December, amid controversy. Both women were critical of Google’s diversity hiring record during the two years they worked together. The flashpoint in Mitchell’s case, for which she had been temporarily suspended earlier, hinged on claims of unauthorized use of files: In a statement, a Google spokesperson said Mitchell had shared “confidential business-sensitive documents and private data of other employees” outside the company. After Mitchell’s suspension last month, Google said activity in her account had triggered a security system. A source familiar with Mitchell’s suspension said she had been using a script to search her email for material Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 8, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Work

Tagged
Conscious computers, Culture, Emily M. Bender, fake news, Google, Google whistleblowers, Jeff Dean, Karen Hao, large language models, Timnit Gebru, Whistleblowers}

Google’s Leading AI Ethics Researcher Fired, Amid Controversy

_{Her research team targeted Google’s “cash cow”: advertising} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 8, 2020

6

Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Work}

Timnit Gebru, a leading AI ethics researcher, was fired from Google early this month under circumstances that have raised suspicions across the industry: On December 2, the AI research community was shocked to learn that Timnit Gebru had been fired from her post at Google. Gebru, one of the leading voices in responsible AI research, is known among other things for coauthoring groundbreaking work that revealed the discriminatory nature of facial recognition, cofounding the Black in AI affinity group, and relentlessly advocating for diversity in the tech industry. But on Wednesday evening, she announced on Twitter that she had been terminated from her position as Google’s ethical AI co-lead. “Apparently my manager’s manager sent an email [to] my direct reports Read More ›