I keep reading about the AI researchers that ejected themselves from Google. Notice I say “ejected themselves”, rather than “fired”. It is because I am quite aware that the words I use can change the perception and narrative of the topic I am discussing. More importantly, it is because these were advertised to be smart, well-educated, and supposedly well-liked (implying socially well-adjusted) individuals.
It is, therefore, reasonable to assume that they are fully
aware of what happens to junior employees when they choose to violate policy.
It matters not whether the policy is subjectively good or bad. Publicly whining
about it and badmouthing your employer will, and frankly must, result in a
prompt parting of ways.
IMHO, they ejected themselves because they chose to behave
in a way that would absolutely get them fired.
I applaud the professional way in which Google management
conducted itself in following its own internal rules and procedures of legal
review and calling out what is good and what is bad for the company.
The Google AI researchers getting fired is a fashionable
topic that has staying power – it has not become yesterday’s news for years
now. That seems to be because of prodigious outputs by media contributors (call them journalists if you like) who can’t grok the tech aspects of the technology
itself but desperately want to be relevant and write about AI. Like pork
spending, attached to a congress appropriations bill, the topic of AI today
offers a platform to attach hobby-horse musings on ethics, diversity, and
censorship.
Time for a reality check, however. We do not live in a
post-scarcity society that can afford to navel-gaze ad nauseum reoccurring ethics
topics. We live in a capitalist society. It may be the worst economic order,
but to date, we know of nothing that works better (quantitatively measuring its
historical performance in raising the standard of living for the greater number
of people by the largest margin).
Granted – capitalism is not good for all, but it appears to
be good enough for most – and as a democracy, we have agreed to be ruled by what
is good for the majority, after all.
If you ever doubt that harsh American capitalism works, let
me point out that the US was the first country in the world to offer
best-in-class vaccines to all of its citizens. (I am not counting Israel, a population too small to be statistically relevant in this case and a diaspora with
enormous economic and political power worldwide).
So when I come across a few loud-mouth young “scientists”
who have crafted, since college, their careers and publications to a specific agenda, much more
so than towards "true science" (if there is such a thing), the only reaction I have to the whining post the well-deserved corporate boot in the backside is: “Good luck and
good riddance!”
Regardless of the clear incompetence and short-sightedness of the Google manager who handled the most famous of these incidents in November 2020 (and missed a fantastic opportunity to redirect the discussion to a scientifically relevant, productive, and brand-enhancing direction), the opposite party's immediate retreat to the comfortable protective shade of the old "I am mistreated because I am a minority" mantra was equally pathetic. It's darker and colder in the shade.
