Am I the only one who thinks its odd that #ai companies all seem to have fired their Ethics / Responsibility folks at the same time - and just as greater scrutiny comes to these technologies?
Probably nothing - just a coincidence that they all decided at the same time to get rid of the people who might ... feel a sense of public duty to whistleblow if they saw evidence of serious wrongdoing.
@kittylyst I think it's less about "serious wrongdoing" (yet) and more about the ethics teams slowing down development by doing their jobs.
MSFT's team was re-orged to other teams ostensibly to speed things up. Then they were let go entirely.
I guess they didn't get the message that they were supposed to chill out and stop slowing things down, so they were cut.
@jzb @kittylyst fully this. Nothing concerning for the time being.
It's sad this sentiment came over from Twitter with the people migrating
@jzb @kittylyst OK, so here's the thing: an ethic team is a safeguard.
Imagine firing the safety inspector in your car factory just as you rank up your production speed with the argument that "he didn't get the memo about not standing in the way of progress".
Seriously…
@funkylab @kittylyst Imagine it? Happens all the time.
Please note, I'm not endorsing or excusing it. Just describing how I think things played out: They were reshuffled to be "closer" with the idea that would weaken the team (harder to feel empowered if you're the lone voice) and send the message "you're here as window dressing, don't slow things down."
Ben Evans
Joe Brockmeier (@jzb)
Z
Marcus Müller