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Comment by joshuamorton | Hacker News Reader

Claiming that Gebru has no tangible accomplishments is factually wrong. She's lead author on multiple highly impactful papers.

> I asked a question, and was put on a list proclaiming everyone in it as alt-right bigots.

Were you, or are you editorializing her actions? Because what you actually described is that she put you on a list

> of "fan boys" of an academic critical of "wokeness" as he calls it

That's not calling you alt-right. I believe the stated purpose of the list was to have a set of people that allies could engage with constructively if they wanted to. In other words, it was a list of people whom might be good to engage in verbal discussions with. Because of that, you're calling for her to be fired. Why?

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Edit: I was mistaken in my response, since the commenter named Gebru. The head of AI at Nvidia is not Gebru, it's Anima Anandkumar. Gebru had nothing to do with this.

She specifically said the things I stated, in a now deleted tweet. I know the cognitive dissonance is causing you to question my account, but that's what she did.

Look up articles where screenshots are posted.

I wasn't claiming Gebru has no accomplishments either. Many of her fellow ethicists fall into that category. She's not an ethicist, just won't shut up about it, along with race stuff, and has nasty, unprofessional habit of attacking people publicly. She's a bully, and I'm sick of people like you defending her because you've bought into her idiotic religion.

> She specifically said the things I stated, in a now deleted tweet. I know the cognitive dissonance is causing you to question my account, but that's what she did.

I agree that she said the specific things you quoted. I'm not debating what she actually said. However when you say she characterized you as a member of the alt-right, that is your editorializing, and not something she said (nor did you claim it was). I'm simply clarifying that she never accused you of being a member of the alt-right, and that you're projecting that accusation.

> Edit: I was mistaken in my response, since the commenter named Gebru. The head of AI at Nvidia is not Gebru, it's Anima Anandkumar. Gebru had nothing to do with this.

Right, but Gebru had a highly discussed disagreement with Yann, so when you said

> Watching highly entitled, and often narcissistic people with no tangible accomplishments attack Yan LeCun is pretty insane.

You were saying "Gebru is a narcissistic person with no tangible accomplishments". Either that, or you're making up generic events and hypotheticals, but that would be a really strangely specific hypothetical. Anandkumar also has very significant achievements, so there's no one you could be directing that comment at that wouldn't be belittling.

Ok, now I get why you were pissed. Gebru was in conflict with LeCun, but the mob of other ethicists that went all in on him were who I was talking about.

And let's be clear:

Gebru's accomplishments aren't shit compared to LeCun's, and everyone knows that in the AI field. Doesn't mean she's not accomplished, because she's a hell of a lot more accomplished than I am.

> Gebru was in conflict with LeCun, but the mob of other ethicists that went all in on him were who I was talking about.

Which ones? I followed things at the time, most of the other people who disagreed with Yann were...also PhDs, many of whom have significant accomplishments in their own right. I mean there are certainly random twitter people saying things, but that wasn't unique to the sides of the ethicists. Random twitter people also attacked and insulted Gebru and co too. So saying "Watching highly entitled, and often narcissistic people with no tangible accomplishments attack Timnit Gebru is pretty insane." is equally correct, but you didn't say that. That's suspicious and perhaps revealing of your biases on the subject.

> Gebru's accomplishments aren't shit compared to LeCun's

Of course. She's also had her PhD for 3 years, as opposed to 30. Its no surprise LeCun has accomplished more in a career 10x as long.

Fair point on her being young in the field and her career. I think the reason it bothered me so much is that people act like LeCun just cruised on easy street for 30 years.

He went through hell. He was rejected from conferences despite having algorithms that exceeded all others, just because neural nets had fallen out of fashion. Meanwhile, the folks who attacked him have cushy jobs earning massive salaries, working on technology that he popularized.

> I believe the stated purpose of the list was to have a set of people that allies could engage with constructively if they wanted to. In other words, it was a list of people whom might be good to engage in verbal discussions with.

Is this some poor attempt at a joke? That's exactly what Twitter mobs do, right? Especially when the instigator calls the targets "fanboys" and "fanatics", and explicitly calls for them to be "cancelled"?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25419871

https://archive.is/9sS3o

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