[civilized]

According to a seemingly credible account from a former employee, Timnit terrorized a Google Brain manuscript discussion forum with unfounded accusations of racist disregard for her contributions https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/k77sxz/com...

The thread is filled with agreeing comments from many people who seem to be ex-Google and who had access to the relevant thread.

[amilios]

This is crazy, I'm not sure why people aren't taking this more into account. By all accounts Timnit was an extremely toxic person to work with. Sure, perhaps she shouldn't have been fired for this paper, Google probably saw an opportunity to remove her that wouldn't be a PR nightmare for them. But regardless, it's hard for me personally to see them as being in the wrong given Timnit's history.

[civilized]

Gebru's brand of Twitter woke-scoldery is taken for granted these days. Par for the course. We all know the tired rhetoric that will be trotted out to defend it, so much so that we could write it ourselves.

A member of the corporate elite criticizing, let alone firing, a black woman for race baiting is now beyond the pale. So they got rid of her indirectly, by making her working conditions unappealing enough to induce her to quit. Too bad some Director Karen of Whatever lost her nerve and ended it on her terms rather than Gebru's. No finesse!