Mastodawn

Timnit Gebru was fired from Google in December 2020 for refusing to retract a research paper, and every single warning that paper made about large language models has now happened at a scale the industry spent 4 years trying to make people forget about.

#AIEthics #WeDontNeedNoAIEthics #WeAintGotNoStinkeenAIEthics

https://www.tumblr.com/dreaminginthedeepsouth/817865966907228160/darren-oconnor-timnit-gebru-was-fired-from?source=share

Post by @dreaminginthedeepsouth · 1 image

💬 0 🔁 17 ❤️ 24 · Darren O'Connor "Timnit Gebru was fired from Google in December 2020 for refusing to retract a research paper, and every single warning that paper made about large language mode…

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Justin M 6d ago

@teledyn don't need ethics when there is money to be made. Same thing happened with oil companies when their own research showed they were causing damage to the environment.

Billy Smith 2d ago

@Jam123 @teledyn

And that was back in the 1850's.

Matilda Love 1d ago

@Jam123 @teledyn billionaires will really say "ethics is less important than my vision, making a ton of money" and then lose a ton of money

Tom 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️2d ago

@teledyn Great, damning article. I'm now even more glad I've gotten almost completely free of Google (and Microsoft, and never used the others).

@teledyn Timnit is on mastodon if anyone wants to follow: @timnitGebru

Hugs4friends ♾🇺🇦 🇵🇸😷1d ago

@RakowskiBartosz Done.@teledyn @timnitGebru

Conny Nasch 1d ago

@RakowskiBartosz also done, I have always had doubts about AI in totality... (Sometimes has its uses) @teledyn @timnitGebru

Chris Pitts 2d ago

@teledyn They knew. They knew and did it anyway. All for a fast buck at our expense 🤬

astroPug 1d ago

I had to think about precisely this when the video of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt being booed at a university speech was making the rounds.

He told the students some stuff about how they’d shape the direction of new technological changes like AI. To be “the voice in the room”, implication being that these young students could somehow steer any new technological changes to be moral, and good.

And I’m thinking, Eric, Google had a voice like that and Google made her leave your room.

Edit: I want to be precise that Eric wasn’t CEO when Google fired Timnit Gebru but he has no business selling is the illusion of a seat at the table when we see evidence to the contrary

アイアンハンドガンダム 1d ago

@astroPug @teledyn Eric is the good guy right? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tlQ7EoJDTQY&t=332s

"But it happened."

YouTube

astroPug 1d ago

@mrt181 @teledyn

Ah. So the Eric I mean is Eric Schmidt, the CEO who held the speech and was deservedly booed. I feel like he conveniently left out what happens to people who do use their voice.

I quite like the gentleman who made this video and the points he made. I don’t know his name - I wanna say Casey but I forgot - but the YouTube name is Molly Rocket.

アイアンハンドガンダム 1d ago

@astroPug @teledyn it's casey

astroPug 1d ago

@mrt181 @teledyn

That’s what I remembered. Nice.

ChookMother 🇦🇺🦘1d ago

@teledyn This is so often the fate of truth-tellers, especially the female kind.
A good article for the non-techy to read. Many of us have deep doubts and suspicions but don't have the language to express them. #TimnitGebru #AI #AIEthics

☑️ Cath 1d ago

@teledyn Thanks, didn't know this. Her story is also well documented on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timnit_Gebru and even her Mastodon-account is there @timnitGebru

#Wikipedia #Google #TimnitGebru #AI #LLM

Timnit Gebru - Wikipedia

@teledyn Is there an article anywhere that documents sources for the data found in the last 5 years that backs up Timnit’s predictions? #DAIR #AI #AIEthics #AskFedi

Numerfolt 1d ago

@teledyn Link to the paper:
https://dl.acm.org/doi/epdf/10.1145/3442188.3445922?brid=YWdncwEiQEWj_bwmyZLm9APNUxnN

Polly Kraisus 1d ago

@teledyn ugh I just went down a rabbithole because I'm avoiding doing what I'm supposed to do and apparently that text was originally posted by Guri Singh on X, but the account was suspended: https://x.com/heygurisingh/status/2059251382960734593
And the reason it was suspended... was undisclosed AI use on that post, according to this: https://piunikaweb.com/2026/05/28/x-suspend-accounts-ai-replies/
Which was based on Pangram considering it AI-generated. AI-detection is shoddy, but I can see why people suspected it. It's just a classic 2026 AI mess, really.

Polly Kraisus 1d ago

@teledyn Anyway, I really need to actually read Timnit et al.'s paper because it's obviously important and relevant and I love what DAIR is doing. It's just funny/horrifying how much of an entangled AI mess the Internet is becoming, where some AI critique is itself AI-generated for cheap clout (because it is justifiably popular) and detected (or not) by more AI-based tools. Blergh.

Timo Laine (he/him)1d ago

@stragu @teledyn This would be funny in the Bergsonian sense if it wasn't so terrible. Generators processing the output of other generators, and driving people's behavior, and driving them to communicate with generators.

@stragu @teledyn Wait what? X still has rules? And they are enforced? And they have rules against AI-generated content? I'm truly shocked.

Polly Kraisus 1d ago

@confuseacat @teledyn who the hell knows. Could have just been an excuse to remove a post that goes against Musk's AI-accelerationist tendencies. 🤷

@stragu @confuseacat @teledyn now that wouldn't shock me at all.

Daniel AJ Sokolov 1d ago

@teledyn The energy use of 5 cars? So optimistic! :-)

Man aging with two dogs 1d ago

"Stochastic Parrots" is just <chef's kiss>!

@teledyn
#LLM #AI #Slop

Timo Laine (he/him)1d ago

@teledyn Is there a better source for this than Tumblr?

teledyn 𓂀 1d ago

@timolaine #DuckDuckGo?

Timo Laine (he/him)1d ago

@teledyn No success, unfortunately...

@timolaine @teledyn

It links to the paper. https://dl.acm.org/doi/epdf/10.1145/3442188.3445922?brid=YWdncwEiQEWj_bwmyZLm9APNUxnN

@timolaine @teledyn

More links here https://faculty.washington.edu/ebender/stochasticparrots/

Emily M. Bender

Emily M. Bender, Professor and Director, Professional MS in Computational Linguistics, Department of Linguistics University of Washington.

Timo Laine (he/him)1d ago

@davep @teledyn Thanks. I was interested in a link to the summary included in the original post, but I guess that can't be found.

Anyway, the original paper is excellent. I had known the expression "stochastic parrot" but did not know its origins. I wish I had known about it before. This paper really does anticipate most of the conversations we have had about LLMs in recent years. Really excellent work.

Timo Laine (he/him)1d ago

@davep @teledyn When humankind is able to start thinking clearly again, we will be looking at this paper and wonder why we ever allowed things to go so far.