Followers | 689 |
Posts | 143817 |
Boards Moderated | 35 |
Alias Born | 03/10/2004 |
Tuesday, May 03, 2022 2:20:48 PM
By: Reuters | May 3, 2022
• Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Monday it had recently fired a senior engineering manager after colleagues, whose landmark research on artificial intelligence software he had been trying to discredit, accused him of harassing behavior.
OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Monday it had recently fired a senior engineering manager after colleagues, whose landmark research on artificial intelligence software he had been trying to discredit, accused him of harassing behavior.
The dispute, which stems from efforts to automate chip design, threatens to undermine the reputation of Google’s research in the academic community. It also could disrupt the flow of millions of dollars in government grants for research into AI and chips.
Google’s research unit has faced scrutiny since late 2020 after workers lodged open critiques about its handling of personnel complaints and publication practices.
The new episode emerged after the scientific journal Nature in June published “A graph placement methodology for fast chip design,” led by Google scientists Azalia Mirhoseini and Anna Goldie. They discovered that AI could complete a key step in the design process for chips, known as floorplanning, faster and better than an unspecified human expert, a subjective reference point.
But other Google colleagues in a paper that was anonymously posted online in March – “Stronger Baselines for Evaluating Deep Reinforcement Learning in Chip Placement” – found that two alternative approaches based on basic software outperform the AI. One beat it on a well-known test, and the other on a proprietary Google rubric.
Google declined to comment on the leaked draft, but two workers confirmed its authenticity.
The company said it refused to publish “Stronger Baselines” because it did not meet its standards, and soon after fired Satrajit Chatterjee, a leading driver of the work. It declined to say why it fired him.
“It’s unfortunate that Google has taken this turn,” said Laurie Burgess, an attorney for Chatterjee. “It was always his goal to have transparency about the science, and he urged over the course of two years for Google to address this.”
Google researcher Goldie told the New York Times, which on Monday first reported the firing, that Chatterjee had harassed her and Mirhoseini for years by spreading misinformation about them.
Burgess denied the allegations, and added that Chatterjee did not leak “Stronger Baselines”.
Patrick Madden, an associate professor focused on chip design at Binghamton University who has read both papers, said he had never seen a paper before the one in Nature that lacked a good comparison point.
“It’s like a reference problem: Everyone gets the same jigsaw puzzle pieces and you can compare how close you come to getting everything right,” he said. “If they were to produce results on some standard benchmark and they were stellar, I would sing their praises.”
Google said the comparison to a human was more relevant and that software licensing issues had prevented it from mentioning tests.
Studies by big institutions such as Google in well-known journals can have an outsized influence on whether similar projects are funded in the industry. One Google researcher said the leaked paper had unfairly opened the door to questions about the credibility of any work published by the company.
After “Stronger Baselines” emerged online, Zoubin Ghahramani, a vice president at Google Research, wrote on Twitter last month that “Google stands by this work published in Nature on ML for Chip Design, which has been independently replicated, open-sourced, and used in production at Google.”
Madden said he hoped Nature would revisit the publication, noting that peer reviewer notes show at least one asked for results on benchmarks.
“Somehow, that never happened,” he said.
Nature said in a statement that it takes all concerns about published papers seriously.
“Issues relating to the paper have been brought to our attention and we are looking into them carefully,” it said.
Read Full Story »»»
DiscoverGold
Information posted to this board is not meant to suggest any specific action, but to point out the technical signs that can help our readers make their own specific decisions. Caveat emptor!
• DiscoverGold
Recent GOOG News
- MongoDB and Google Cloud Collaborate to Optimize Gemini Code Assist for Developers Building Applications on MongoDB • PR Newswire (US) • 05/02/2024 10:00:00 AM
- Google Terminates Employees Over Protests Against Israeli Government Contract • IH Market News • 04/18/2024 12:20:50 PM
- Apple in Talks with Google to Integrate Gemini AI into iPhone, Shaping a New Era in Tech Collaboration • IH Market News • 03/19/2024 10:39:54 AM
- Futures Pointing To Continued Weakness On Wall Street • IH Market News • 03/05/2024 02:03:27 PM
- U.S. Stocks May Lack Direction Following Yesterday’s Modest Pullback • IH Market News • 02/27/2024 02:14:46 PM
- FTC to Inquire to Microsoft's, Google's, Amazon's AI Partnerships • Dow Jones News • 01/25/2024 06:12:00 PM
- Lüm Mobile Taps Alepo's TelcoBot.ai for Generative AI Customer Service • PR Newswire (US) • 01/25/2024 04:00:00 PM
- Alphabet on Track for Record High Close -- Data Talk • Dow Jones News • 01/25/2024 03:45:00 PM
- Google to Settle Chip Patent Lawsuit With Singular Computing • Dow Jones News • 01/24/2024 07:15:00 PM
- Alphabet Division X Cutting Dozens of Staff, Bloomberg Reports • Dow Jones News • 01/22/2024 04:32:00 PM
- Alphabet on Track for Highest Close Since February 2022 -- Data Talk • Dow Jones News • 01/22/2024 03:36:00 PM
- AST SpaceMobile Gets Investments From AT&T, Google • Dow Jones News • 01/18/2024 10:00:00 PM
- Google to Invest $1 Billion to Build UK Data Center • Dow Jones News • 01/18/2024 06:51:00 PM
- Applied Materials, Google to Collaborate on AR Technology • Dow Jones News • 01/09/2024 01:12:00 PM
- Alphabet on Track for Highest Close Since April 2022 -- Data Talk • Dow Jones News • 12/20/2023 03:49:00 PM
- Trending: Alphabet to Pay $700 Million in Google Play Settlement • Dow Jones News • 12/19/2023 08:13:00 PM
- Trending: Epic Games Wins Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google • Dow Jones News • 12/12/2023 03:50:00 PM
- Alphabet on Pace for Largest Percent Increase Since July -- Data Talk • Dow Jones News • 12/07/2023 03:22:00 PM
- Google, Canada Reach Deal Over Planned Online News Law • Dow Jones News • 11/29/2023 08:05:00 PM
- Google, Canadian Government Reach Deal on Online News Act, CBC Reports • Dow Jones News • 11/29/2023 05:23:00 PM
- VMware and Google Cloud announce planned PostgreSQL-compatible Database Solution for traditional and generative AI applications on VMware Cloud Foundation • Business Wire • 11/07/2023 08:05:00 AM
- Match Group, Google Reach Binding Term Sheet in Legal Battle • Dow Jones News • 10/31/2023 09:29:00 PM
- Alphabet Ends Down 9.5%, Sees Largest Percent Decrease Since March 2020 -- Data Talk Update • Dow Jones News • 10/25/2023 08:59:00 PM
- Alphabet Down Over 8%, on Pace for Largest Percent Decrease in Almost a Year -- Data Talk • Dow Jones News • 10/25/2023 02:48:00 PM
- Stocks to Watch: Microsoft, Alphabet, Stride • Dow Jones News • 10/25/2023 12:16:00 AM
VHAI - Vocodia Partners with Leading Political Super PACs to Revolutionize Fundraising Efforts • VHAI • Sep 19, 2024 11:48 AM
Dear Cashmere Group Holding Co. AKA Swifty Global Signs Binding Letter of Intent to be Acquired by Signing Day Sports • DRCR • Sep 19, 2024 10:26 AM
HealthLynked Launches Virtual Urgent Care Through Partnership with Lyric Health. • HLYK • Sep 19, 2024 8:00 AM
Element79 Gold Corp. Appoints Kevin Arias as Advisor to the Board of Directors, Strengthening Strategic Leadership • ELMGF • Sep 18, 2024 10:29 AM
Mawson Finland Limited Further Expands the Known Mineralized Zones at Rajapalot: Palokas step-out drills 7 metres @ 9.1 g/t gold & 706 ppm cobalt • MFL • Sep 17, 2024 9:02 AM
PickleJar Announces Integration With OptCulture to Deliver Holistic Fan Experiences at Venue Point of Sale • PKLE • Sep 17, 2024 8:00 AM