Anyone paying close attention to the output of generic "AI ethics" people (especially on Twitter) should not be surprised that companies that when push comes to shove the businesses getting actually useful AI tools that are being tested by real people for real things generating real data, are starting to question the utility of the bulk of the crowd who skirted off hypotheticals for years to build their reputations as "experts". Once the hypotehtical meets the meat of the problems you usually can quickly root out the people not providing any value and merely pushing trendy FUDy positions.
The key here is that the costs are still as high a ever, Microsoft is very aware of the consequences of ignoring the legitimate AI ethics issues. So it's not likely it's merely ignoring risk.
The real useful AI ethics people will be born out of real world applications. Not pearl clutching by people making grand projections, often with a limited grasp of what the technology actually means in practice, in a competitve open market where you the cat is out of the bag even if you don't like it.
The legitimately talented AI thinkers will still be highly employable at the end of the day. Even if a small subset of talent got burned by the output/management of their previous team they'll be okay long term. Hell, even the non-talented ones will still be in demand considering the demand in the media for stories/politically convient takes, and the general tolerance for mediocrity in mega-tech-firms.
The key here is that the costs are still as high a ever, Microsoft is very aware of the consequences of ignoring the legitimate AI ethics issues. So it's not likely it's merely ignoring risk.
The real useful AI ethics people will be born out of real world applications. Not pearl clutching by people making grand projections, often with a limited grasp of what the technology actually means in practice, in a competitve open market where you the cat is out of the bag even if you don't like it.
The legitimately talented AI thinkers will still be highly employable at the end of the day. Even if a small subset of talent got burned by the output/management of their previous team they'll be okay long term. Hell, even the non-talented ones will still be in demand considering the demand in the media for stories/politically convient takes, and the general tolerance for mediocrity in mega-tech-firms.