MIT asks arXiv to withdraw preprint of paper on AI and scientific discovery

> by a former second-year PhD student

Seems pretty serious if they kicked him out.

I always wonder what happens with these high-profile transgressors. I once created a Google News alert for a high-level Apple employee who went to jail for some criminal act at Apple and never saw any indication of him again. I’m guessing his career in economics is likely over (he’d previously worked at the NY Fed before starting at MIT) and I wonder what he’ll end up doing—will he be able to find some sort of white-color work in the future or will he be condemned to retail or food-service employment.

> will he be able to find some sort of white-color work in the future or will he be condemned to retail or food-service employment.

Lay low for a year, work on some start-up-ish looking project, then use his middle name to get hired at one of the many AI startups? (only half joking)...

White collar encompasses a lot, outside of economics or finance.

Also, there are companies who will see that win at any cost mentality as a positive trait.

I'm betting whoever it is, is okay now.

The MIT announcement says they asked him to retract the paper but he wouldn't, which led to them making the public statement about the paper.

They may have thought they could jump into an industry job, including the paper and all of its good press coverage on their resume. Only the author can retract an arXiv paper, not their academic institution. It wouldn't be hard to come up with a story that they decided to leave the academic world and go into industry early.

MIT coming out and calling for the paper's retraction certainly hampers that plan. They could leave it up and hope that some future employer is so enamored with their resume that nobody does a Google search about it, but eventually one of their coworkers is going to notice.

Stephen Glass, the dude who fabricated stories for New Republic back in the late 90s, has attempted at least twice to become an attorney after going to law school. Both New York and California denied his bar applications on the grounds that he failed the standards for moral character. He nonetheless seems to be employed by a law firm, but not as a practicing attorney.

There are a gazillion small companies out there that hire white collar workers with only a rudimentary background check (are they a felon) and an interview that is more a vibe check than anything.

He probably will never be someone of significance, but he also will probably be able to have a standard middle class life.

But would you want to work for a company that just does a vibe check, or one that raises the bar with every hire?

That high-level Apple employee was probably a manager and oversaw hiring people.

I would tell myself every day, "I wouldn't hire me."

It's not self-defeating.

It's not being a victim.

I wouldn't let it stop me from trying.

It's being accurate about what kind of company you'd want to build yourself, and the internal state of a lot of hiring managers. And with a true model of the world you can make better decisions.

Or, as in the case of the LaCour/UCLA kid, a lot of outfits will agree with the ends if not the means. Still, getting caught doing this has to close 100 doors for every 1 door it opens.