YouTuber charged fans $199 for ML course that copied other people's GitHub code | Hacker News Reader

YouTuber charged fans $199 for ML course that copied other people's GitHub code

theregister.co.uk

89 pointskaashmonee14 comments

I miss the old web back when everything wasn't about posturing and making a quick buck. It's just stupid. Everything is part of some monkey making strategy anymore.

https://github.com/llSourcell/The-Neural-Qubit/issues/4

Classy! Loving the irony of license violation and intellectual fraud in a file named fraud_detection.py Can't make this shit up.

I know nothing about this guy but his Twitter followers appear very... cultish. Tells me all I need to know.

A few days back there was a thread started by students of his course on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/d7ad2y/d_s...

This guy always seemed to rub me the wrong way, aside from the fact that he came off as a coked up character from the Hunger Games Elite.

Not only does he proliferate a number of obnoxious bay area stereotypes - but he also made videos like "watch me make a startup in a day". Videos like this were probably the most obnoxious, especially the ones that focused on "AI".

Although I hate Siraj's content, this is exactly what most freelancers or coders in companies do, use proper licensed code & use that for commercial purposes which is absolutely fine.

> Although I hate Siraj's content, this is exactly what most freelancers or coders in companies do, use proper licensed code & use that for commercial purposes which is absolutely fine.

So, at the very least, this guy displayed the licenses of the ripped content as well? If not it's not proper use.

Someone on Reddit gave an example of him deleting the license off a file he'd taken (and repo README only saying that the project is "by him").

Seeing how the rest of the files in the repo did have the same license remaining it was probably just a mistake, but this whole thing just gives off a really fucked vibe.

Adapting code, using code, taking code. Same same but very different.

Indeed.

I do not understand why Siraj felt the need to delete licenses.

Surely his students did not expect him to generate all the material himself out of thin blue air.

Even someone like Peter Norvig has a github full of other people's notebooks with proper licenses and attribution.

There is nothing wrong with that.

What's also worth noting is that most of the materials used in his videos is usually taken from other websites (the top links in Google when you search for the given topic)...

Great to see his bs is now in the open. Classic charlatan.

If you think this is bad, then I have bad news about literally the entire field of ML...

I don't understand all the hate for Siraj and all the personal attacks about being a "fraud" and a "coked-up" guy and I think it's really unwarranted. The dude isn't Geoffrey Hinton or Andrew Ng and doesn't claim to be, and obviously nobody should consider his videos or courses as a substitute for actual coursework etc.

I'm actually a really big fan of his channel, and all I see is a guy with a bit of understanding in the field trying to be enthusiastic about ML/AI in the hopes of getting people that otherwise wouldn't be interested in such a topic interested (i.e. a younger audience or audience that doesn't normally delve into this kind of thing and/or doesn't have access or exposure to academia or the community and culture behind it). There are people in this world who don't know who Hinton or Ng are, or what ML and AI are or what that means (a lot of them are high-schoolers or people from poorer and less fortunate backgrounds than I'm sure that a lot of people on this thread have any exposure to).

That being said, almost all of Siraj's videos have working demos (and usually some references to their source), and having watched numerous videos of his, I don't get any sort of feeling that he's trying to take credit for anything he shows in his videos as being his own or why that's even an issue considering his videos are 99% free, intended to be fun, interactive, and educational.

I also have no doubt that Siraj could be working where ever he wanted and could be making a great deal more money from starting either his own company or working in industry. I have no problem with Siraj trying to make a bit of money for himself by putting out a $200 course which is totally optional, is obviously not a credential, doesn't claim to be, and is honestly the comparable to the price of a Masterclass showing you how to cook dumplings or something.

I think Siraj makes a real effort to put quality, working, engaging content out there for possibly a less exposed and younger audience in way that's entertaining and doesn't take itself too seriously, 99% for free, and considering todays educational climate, is something that I think will actually benefit future generations to come and isn't done enough.

I'm actually really disappointed in HN community's response to him in general, especially the unwarranted attacks on his personal character, behavior or the way he dresses, etc. I would have thought a community like this would be above superficial and meaningless things like that.

You don't think something that goes "This is the related code for the research paper & Youtube video by Siraj Raval titled "The Neural Qubit". [...]", where the code itself is from elsewhere with sole modification consisting of nuking license/attribution, is suspicious?

That doesn't have to mean he's "a fraud" but certainly that he ought to be more careful or he might come off as one, including to good faith observers.

Huge fan of Siraj! Really feel bad for him now :(

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