Another Casualty of the Algorithms

Last week saw the internet a buzz at the firing of Dr. Timnit Gebru. (#DownGoesGebru) If you have not heard, the basic premise is that she was fired due to a paper criticizing Google's BERT (#BERTalert) algorithm which has supposedly become an integral part of Google's Search Engine. If this is so, it represents another casualty in the long history of humans trying to defy the power of Algorithms.

While algorithms are clearly not conscious in the way we think of humans being conscious, they absolutely have commanding power. In fact, I would say that algorithms are the most powerful thing EVER! And I mean EVER! (#neoisnottheone) There have been many before me that have pontificated about algorithms ability to make humans reshape the surface of the Earth just to save some micro-seconds in sending orders to the stock market. Or take for instance, the power algorithms have had on making people "literally" reshape their bodies thanks to social media. (#WhatwouldIlooklikeskinnier)

There are over 7 billion people on this planet, and I can't imagine how many of them wake up each day to produce something that an algorithm recommended for another one of those 7 billion+ to buy.

Likewise, we may never know how many people have lost families, jobs, and lives due to the sheer power of algorithms. (#architectreignssupreme) All we know is if it is a battle between throwing out a potentially Unethical Algorithm and throwing out the Ethicist who pointed out the potential trouble. You know who is going to win. Mark one for team algorithm! (#AnothaOne)

(Correction) - Fixed misspelling of Dr. Gebru's name and added links to articles explaining the firing of Dr. Gebru as well as Google's BERT.

#IrreverentNoise #TimnitGebru #GoogleBERT #BERTbias #BERTalert #AIbias #Ethicistscrewed