# More employees jumping ship! The head of Uber's AI labs leaves



## BurgerTiime (Jun 22, 2015)

https://www.axios.com/the-head-of-ubers-ai-labs-is-latest-to-leave-the-company-2306759764.html








Gary Marcus, a research scientist who joined Uber four months ago as director of its AI labs, is leaving the company, according to sources. Uber bought Marcus' startup, Geometric Intelligence, in December, using its 15 employees to form a new artificial intelligence unit.

Marcus joins a long list of recent exits from the troubled company, with Uber's most future-leaning efforts especially hard hit. Other notable departures include product head Ed Baker, self-driving car engineer Raffi Krikorian and famous car hacker Charlie Miller, who is joining Chinese rival Didi.

Marcus joined Uber in December 2016 to much fanfare from the company. Uber acquired his 15-person startup, Geometric Intelligence.

*Why it matters:* Today's Uber is all about matching riders and drivers, but the company's future efforts in self-driving cars and machine intelligence require a type of talent in short supply. Uber, already facing a lawsuit from Google and its ongoing harassment investigation, may have a tough time replacing those who leave.


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

Are they " jumping ship


BurgerTiime said:


> https://www.axios.com/the-head-of-ubers-ai-labs-is-latest-to-leave-the-company-2306759764.html
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Are they" jumping ship"?
Or are they being run off as the scope of the sexual harassment investigation broadens ???


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## ChortlingCrison (Mar 30, 2016)

tohunt4me said:


> Are they " jumping ship
> 
> Are they" jumping ship"?
> Or are they being run off as the scope of the sexual harassment investigation broadens ???


Jumping from a ship being torpedoed from all different directions.


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

ChortlingCrison said:


> Jumping from a ship being torpedoed from all different directions.


Damage control keeps ships floating.
Jumping overboard lands you in flaming oil.


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## SEAL Team 5 (Dec 19, 2015)

tohunt4me said:


> Are they " jumping ship


Home boy Gary most likely doesn't want to be affiliated with the Waymo/Google scandal since its 14k pages about AI. The article states that Uber bought Gary's company Geometric Intelligence and the 15 employees that went with it. I'm curious to see if Gary had to sign an employment contract with Uber and if so what was the content?


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

SEAL Team 5 said:


> Home boy Gary most likely doesn't want to be affiliated with the Waymo/Google scandal since its 14k pages about AI. The article states that Uber bought Gary's company Geometric Intelligence and the 15 employees that went with it. I'm curious to see if Gary had to sign an employment contract with Uber and if so what was the content?


Well this bodes badly for Uber AI cars if after Google suit he has Nothing left to work on. . . .


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## SEAL Team 5 (Dec 19, 2015)

tohunt4me said:


> Well this bodes badly for Uber AI cars if after Google suit he has Nothing left to work on. . . .


How about his resignation speech?


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## elelegido (Sep 24, 2014)

I hope he stole as many stationery supplies as he could carry on his way out.


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## Jagent (Jan 29, 2017)

tohunt4me said:


> Well this bodes badly for Uber AI cars if after Google suit he has Nothing left to work on. . . .


Bingo. Writing is on the wall.


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## ubershiza (Jan 19, 2015)

SEAL Team 5 said:


> Home boy Gary most likely doesn't want to be affiliated with the Waymo/Google scandal since its 14k pages about AI. The article states that Uber bought Gary's company Geometric Intelligence and the 15 employees that went with it. I'm curious to see if Gary had to sign an employment contract with Uber and if so what was the content?


Most likely they categorized him as an independent contractor.


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## SEAL Team 5 (Dec 19, 2015)

elelegido said:


> I hope he stole as many stationery supplies as he could carry on his way out.


It's an app company. The only paper products they have there are what you wipe your butt with.


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## elelegido (Sep 24, 2014)

SEAL Team 5 said:


> It's an app company. The only paper products they have there are what you wipe your butt with.


Raiding the janitorial closet is also acceptable.


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## SEAL Team 5 (Dec 19, 2015)

elelegido said:


> Raiding the janitorial closet is also acceptable.


Now that's a great idea. You know those commercial brand cleaners are the bomb. Wonder if Uber security would even catch on if you were to wheel out the mop bucket filled with cleaning supplies?


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## elelegido (Sep 24, 2014)

SEAL Team 5 said:


> Now that's a great idea. You know those commercial brand cleaners are the bomb. Wonder if Uber security would even catch on if you were to wheel out the mop bucket filled with cleaning supplies?


Probably not. In one office I worked in you couldn't leave anything of value out as the security guards would steal it that night.


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## flexian (Aug 16, 2016)

he probably has a pile of money from the buyout, so hes not exactly hanging around like the other 10,000 employees hoping to get rich from an IPO

so he has nothing to lose and decided the chances of adding onto his already-formidable stash of cash were not worth the time or effort......

this is nothing but bad for Uubz and Trav!


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

Nobody wants to be here when they finally announce they are giving up on sdc's.


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## BurgerTiime (Jun 22, 2015)

flexian said:


> he probably has a pile of money from the buyout, so hes not exactly hanging around like the other 10,000 employees hoping to get rich from an IPO
> 
> so he has nothing to lose and decided the chances of adding onto his already-formidable stash of cash were not worth the time or effort......
> 
> this is nothing but bad for Uubz and Trav!


If Uber ipo'd a year ago their stock would have tanked by now.


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## 60000_TaxiFares (Dec 3, 2015)

BurgerTiime said:


> If Uber ipo'd a year ago their stock would have tanked by now.


They would have carved their left nuts ( or lady parts) to* cash out $20-$40 billion* 6 months ago after the lock up period if they could have. Probably would have if they thought they could have.... especially the investors seeing continuing quarterly losses.... and mighty skiddish at that.

Here there is a *schizophrenic vision of this company*... an imaginary* one profiting billions* on the backs of driver - partners and the real one *hemorrhaging cash* at the rate of $*250 million a month* with doubts of ever seeing profitability much less the *6 billion* of investor cash already up in smoke.

This despite Uber *revenue-ing* (not profiting) more than 40% of each drivers fare with booking fee. We'll see what kind of figures filter out this April or July..

I've seen reports most of these losses seem to be from *driver subsidies and bonuses* in about *15 out of Uber's 200 U.S. markets*. Oddly enough, the *most subsidized *drivers have the most active and complaint filled forums while there *rest of the 185 markets* slog along and pull the stupid train. Probably because the 15 markets are probably amongst the largest.

The new app with the *Where To?* box and the *elimination of numerical surge x.x designations*, replaced by flat rate quotes and a "rates may be higher than usual " is a good start. Should have been that way from the get go.

Stay Safe

CC


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## TwoFiddyMile (Mar 13, 2015)

Yay


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