No More Fair Twitter Algorithm? Elon Musk Fires Twitter’s ML Ethics, Transparency, and Accountability Team Director

The new Twitter CEO dismantled a division aiming to make the platform's algorithms more transparent and equitable as part of a round of layoffs. Adding credence to the idea that Musk would make everyone's Twitter timeline unfair, prejudiced, and predominantly right-wing.

Musk Fires Twitter's Ethics AI

Elon Musk pondered about open-sourcing "the algorithm" that decides how tweets are shown in user feeds, not long after announcing ambitions to purchase Twitter last March. All that so it could be investigated for bias. His supporters and those who feel the social media site has a left-wing tilt were overjoyed upon hearing this. More so, when Musk finally bought Twitter just recently.

However, as part of an ambitious cost-cutting plan that includes the layoff of thousands of Twitter employees, Musk's management team laid off a team of artificial intelligence experts. These are those who were striving to make Twitter's algorithms more open and fair.

For a bit of a background, as additional AI difficulties have emerged, such as prejudices based on race, gender, and age, several tech firms have formed "ethical AI" teams purportedly committed to finding and addressing such issues.

Twitter's META unit was more forward-thinking than others in sharing information about flaws with the company's AI systems and inviting independent academics to test its algorithms for new problems.

Though it didn't appear that she was looking forward to working under Musk, director of Twitter's ML Ethics, Transparency, and Accountability team (META) Rumman Chowdhury was still surprised by the sudden layoff. Chowdhury tweeted that she had been let go as part of major downsizing enforced by new management.

Chowdhury informed WIRED earlier this week that the work of the groups had been halted due to Musk's planned takeover. "We were told, in no uncertain terms, not to rock the boat," she claimed.

Chowdhury also stated that her team has been conducting significant new research on political prejudice, which might have assisted Twitter and other social networks in preventing certain opinions from being unfairly punished.

Joan Deitchman, a senior manager at Twitter's META unit, verified the firing of the whole staff. Kristian Lum, a former machine learning reacher on the team, stated that the "entire META team minus one" had been laid off. This morning, no one from the team or Twitter could be reached for further information.

How It Will Affect Twitter

Though it is unclear whether this layoff has resulted in a lesser value for Twitter, sponsors are reportedly pulling back. In another Wired report, Elon Musk claimed that advertiser concerns about content control on Twitter Inc. caused a large loss in income despite no modifications being implemented.

The remarks came as companies such as Audi, Pfizer Inc., and General Mills Inc. announced plans to temporarily halt investing on the platform as they await Musk's new Twitter management.

On the other hand, several experts regarded the layoffs as a setback not only for Twitter, but also for attempts to advance artificial intelligence. "What a tragedy," said Kate Starbird, an associate professor of communication studies at the University of Washington.

According to Mark Riedl, an AI professor at Georgia Tech, the algorithms used by Twitter and other social media companies have a significant influence on people's lives and should be explored.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Thea Felicity