
Google DeepMind Co-Founder Placed on Leave from AI Lab - situational87
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-21/google-deepmind-co-founder-placed-on-leave-from-ai-lab
======
kryogen1c
What a worthless article. Was this machine generated? There is literally zero
information in it.

>“Mustafa is taking time out right now after 10 hectic years,” a DeepMind
spokeswoman said. She didn’t say why he was put on leave.

Its like someone heard a rumor and fed the quote into an article generator
that pulled related snippets about moose. If this is a public spokeswoman, why
is she unnamed? This isn't reporting.

~~~
pavlov
Isn't it quite common for companies to provide quotes to reporters through
spokespeople without putting the person's name on record? I don't think
leaving her unnamed is Bloomberg's choice.

Personally I found the article interesting because I knew nothing about
"Moose" or DeepMind Health beforehand.

~~~
reaperducer
_Isn 't it quite common for companies to provide quotes to reporters through
spokespeople without putting the person's name on record?_

No. That's the whole point of having a spokesperson.

It's become more common recently since the rise of small media (blogs,
Buzzfeed, etc...), but the big players hardly ever do it. Sometimes it's used
for brevity. For example, an article written for radio might not name the
person just to fit into a certain number of seconds. That article can then end
up on the web site without being re-written by the web team. It's possible
that's what happened here, since Bloomberg has a radio network.

The New York Times publishes a book explaining how things work within its
organization. There's a chapter about un-named sources, and the significant
hoops a reporter must go through in order to not use names.

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defertoreptar
Had to find an alternate source due to the paywall:

[https://fortune.com/2019/08/21/google-deepmind-co-founder-
le...](https://fortune.com/2019/08/21/google-deepmind-co-founder-leave/)

------
buboard
Another non paywall source:

[https://www.businessinsider.com/deepmind-cofounder-
mustafa-s...](https://www.businessinsider.com/deepmind-cofounder-mustafa-
suleyman-taking-leave-2019-8)

hn should really stop linking paywalls, it's unethical to the publishers who
chose to put their content behind them.

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sigmonsays
Why is it so common to link paywall articles here?

is this just a strategy to get us to sign up ?

~~~
fortran77
Yes! It's a vast conspiracy! In fact, that's Hacker News' true business model.

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catacombs
I wonder if something serious happened for him to take a leave of absence. I
honestly wouldn't be surprised if, by tomorrow, sexual allegations came out.

~~~
ryanmercer
"a man was placed on leave, must be a sex scandal!"

Is this seriously the society we live in?

\- Maybe he's sick

\- Maybe a family member is sick

\- Maybe he had a kid

\- Maybe he's adopting a kid

\- Maybe he's burnt out and wants something longer than what is considered a
vacation off

\- Maybe they're taking a direction on current research he objects to for any
number of reasons

\- Maybe he has interests in the UK he has to focus on due to Brexit and needs
to step away while he deals with them.

\- Maybe he's doing something for Partnership on AI that is going to demand
most of his time.

~~~
Judgmentality
Being placed on leave is not the same as taking time off. One implies it was
voluntary and the other implies it was obligatory.

That said, I do agree it's best not to jump to conclusions.

~~~
ryanmercer
>Being placed on leave is not the same as taking time off

The only quote on the matter is

“Mustafa is taking time out right now after 10 hectic years,”

That does not state he was 'placed on leave' the author of the article claims
it, to me the direct quote reads as "he's burnt out and wants to take some
time off but plans to come back"

"placed on leave" makes a better headline than "is taking a break" and isn't
inflammatory enough to result in any legal action and at worst there will be a
"editor's note: we have since learned he has chosen to take time off and have
edited the article as such"

