Machine learning expert: “AI hype” is the true product, to provide cover for social agendas

Bhaskar Mitra worked for 19 years in big tech, most recently as an information retrieval researcher focused on machine learning and AI. In June of this year, Bhaskar’s employment was terminated as part of one of the mass layoffs. But prior to that, he had been speaking vocally about Palestine and also more broadly about the systemic problems with AI. Hard Reset initially went into the conversation with questions about Gaza—but the talk veered into an analysis of AI, LLMs (large language models), and the centralization of information. I found it interesting to hear straight from someone who had a senior role working on AI at a big tech company and who has been deep in this technology for a few years now. Here is our conversation below. Hard Reset is reader-supported! To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Ariella Steinhorn: Bhaskar, what did you do in big tech? And when your employment came to an end, were you surprised? Sad? Relieved? Bh

Bhaskar Mitra worked for 19 years in big tech, most recently as an information retrieval researcher focused on machine learning and AI. In June of this year, Bhaskar’s employment was terminated as part of one of the mass layoffs. But prior to that, he had been speaking vocally about Palestine and also more broadly about the systemic problems with AI. Hard Reset initially went into the conversation with questions about Gaza—but the talk veered into an analysis of AI, LLMs (large language models), and the centralization of information. I found it interesting to hear straight from someone who had