Timnit Gebru
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timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru
@timnitgebru.bsky.social
30K followers 800 following 960 posts

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Founder: The Distributed AI Research Institute @dairinstitute.bsky.social.

Author: The View from Somewhere, a memoir & manifesto arguing for a technological future that serves our communities (to be published by One Signal / Atria .. more

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Timnit Gebru is an Eritrean Ethiopian-born computer scientist who works in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), algorithmic bias and data mining. She is a co-founder of Black in AI, an advocacy group that has pushed for more Black roles in AI development and research. She is the founder of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR). .. more

Computer science 77%
Mathematics 7%
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timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · Apr 15
🔇🔇🔇Announcing new work from DAIR which is very close to my heart, 3 years in the making.

When #TigrayGenocide, the deadliest genocide of the 21st century thus far, started in November 2020, it was 1 month before I got fired from Google. 🧵

english.elpais.com/internationa...
Ethiopia’s forgotten war is the deadliest of the 21st century, with around 600,000 civilian deaths
Estimates by European institutions and academics say over half a million non-combatants have died during the Tigray conflict as a result of a government blockade that kept out humanitarian aid
english.elpais.com

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 11h
who called them out rather. They had incessant attacks against those of us who wrote out their quotes and stances, including the grants they gave to far right orgs. This gathering of theirs with the worst offender billionaires when it comes to "AI" seems like they were concerned back in 2015 🙄

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 11h
that we should "leave biology behind" colonize the cosmos after uploading our minds digitally and only "AI" will help us do that,

then rebrand as concerned citizens concerned about "addictive chatbots", using the $700m+ they have from crypto billionaires + Musk, the satire gets lost.

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 11h
Yes but the satire gets lost when it comes from THE FUTURE OF LIFE INSTITUTE, who has said the same things except in real life, and then attacked those of us who attacked them.

When you see institutes cofounded by Musk who pushed that only a good machine god will stop us from the bad,

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 11h
These people said that we need to leave biology behind, digitally upload our minds and colonize the cosmos. That's the only way to survive. They were always in Altman, Musk and others' circles, and now they are apparently people who care about "addictive chatbots."

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 11h
Hard to take any of their satire at face value when they've said the same thing in real life and attacked those of us who called them out on it, before they rebranded.

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 11h
weren't pushing the whole if we don't build a good machine god we'll go extinct ideology. Musk is a cofounder. And you can see them here in 2015.
bsky.app/profile/timn...
timnitgebru.bsky.social Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 11h
Either you build a good machine god or your extinct. That was their stance. And now they're doing satire here, rebranding as concerned citizens. Look at them here discussing "AI".
9 almost all white men, including Bostrom, billionaires Musk and Tallin, discussing "AI" and "existential risks."

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 11h
Yes it is satire but as I wrote

The Future of Life Institute was started by those who believed that only the building of so-called AGI would stop us from the "cosmocalypse." That was real. They've now rebranded as "concerned citizens" as if their hundreds of millions from crypto & Musk's billions

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 11h
Either you build a good machine god or your extinct. That was their stance. And now they're doing satire here, rebranding as concerned citizens. Look at them here discussing "AI".
9 almost all white men, including Bostrom, billionaires Musk and Tallin, discussing "AI" and "existential risks."

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 11h
And that even climate change didn't post an "existential risk to humanity" not even the collision of galaxies did, on AI. Its either utopia or apocalypse according to them.

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 11h
“We take our job of replacing humans in all economically viable work pretty dang seriously,” he added, reassuringly."

The Future of Life Institute was started by someone who believed that only the building of so-called AGI would stop us from the "cosmocalypse" BTW

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 11h
"Finally, KRON4 asked if the entire Replacement AI concept was satire, meant to highlight the risks of an unregulated AI industry.

“If you’re asking me if this is a joke,” Hardin said after a pause, “the punchline is obviously on humanity.”

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 12h
"Pressed on whether marketing an addictive AI chatbot to kids is ethical, Hardin shrugged: “I mean sure, but that’s not really our problem. That’s something parents or maybe lawmakers might want to look into.”

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 12h
They didn't name me but it was clear they were talking about me, hence the reason someone forwarded me the email.

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 12h
This institute, cofounded by Musk, circulated an email about me not just internally but to their "partners" a couple of years ago when I started calling them out as eugenicists in the TESCREAL bundle, as we wrote in our paper.

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 12h
Coincidentally, Hardin shares a name with the communications director for the Future of Life Institute, a nonprofit focused on AI safety."

What did I tell you about so called "AI safety" and the Future of Life Institute?

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 12h
Other messaging includes insults like “stupid, smelly, squishy,” alongside the ominous statement: “It’s time for a human solution.”

KRON4 contacted Replacement AI and spoke with someone claiming to be the startup’s “humble unpaid intern,” Chase Hardin.

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 12h
One reads: “AI does your daughter’s homework. Reads her bedtime stories. Romances her. Deepfakes her. Don’t worry. It’s totally legal.” Visitors to the Replacement AI website are greeted with a banner declaring, “Humans are no longer necessary.”

‘Stupid. Smelly. Squishy.’

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 12h
"The ads, from a company calling itself Replacement AI, feature dark, dystopian taglines."

The ads, from a company calling itself Replacement AI, feature dark, dystopian taglines.

Reposted by Timnit Gebru

pileque.bsky.social
pileque.bsky.social @pileque.bsky.social · 13h
www.kron4.com/news/bay-are...
www.kron4.com

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 13h
This "singularity" they're tailing about though is more of a "rapture" or "end of times" moment.

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 13h
For those interested in more info.

Paper: firstmonday.org/ojs/index.ph...
Resources: www.dair-institute.org/projects/tes...
My talk: www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7XT...
Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TESCREAL
firstmonday.org

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 13h
One of these cult leaders had predicted that the "singularity" was gonna be in 2025. I think we all made it right? Barring anything happening in the next few days.

They'll update their so-called "calculations" (I.e. numbers out of asses) for the next "prediction."

Who STILL platforms these people?

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 13h
Yikes. I thought that it was well known now with the Valley's eugenicists & Trump.

They could read our paper firstmonday.org/ojs/index.ph... or see resources at www.dair-institute.org/projects/tes... or watch my talk www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7XT... or go to Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TESCREAL
View of The TESCREAL bundle: Eugenics and the promise of utopia through artificial general intelligence | First Monday
firstmonday.org

Reposted by Timnit Gebru

Reposted by Timnit Gebru

jasonhowell.bsky.social
Jason Howell @jasonhowell.bsky.social · 2d
Happy holidays! @jeffjarvis.bsky.social and I spoke with Ben Goertzel of SingularityNET on AI Inside about open source AI, regulation, and AGI’s messy middle. He argues “open” often stops at code. Two moments stood out.

Full episode: aiinside.show/episode/ben-...
Ben Goertzel: What AGI Means Now, Open Source AI, and Compute Constraints | AI Inside podcast
This episode is sponsored by Your360 AI. Get 10% off through January 2026 at Your360.ai with code: INSIDE. Ben Goertzel, founder and CEO of SingularityNET,...
aiinside.show

Reposted by Timnit Gebru

timnitgebru.bsky.social
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 2d
After transformers then it wasn't even solely deep learning that became synonymous with AI, or even any task using transformers, but a specific setup with image generators, LLMs and the like, where the task is to take an input of a specific modality and generate an output of some modality.