Hassan Akbari

Building cool stuff in stealth | ex-@GoogleDeepmind, ex-@GoogleResearch, ex-@Microsoft, ex-@Columbia

[Hassan Akbari @hassanience]

@JeffDean Jeff, you’ve always been an inspiration to me, both during my time at Google and after I left to start my own company. Really excited to see what you folks cook up!

[Yogi @Houseofyogi]

Mamdani got the whole American dream in eight years. Came here as a kid, got citizenship in 2018, now he runs the biggest city in the country.

And on America's 250th birthday he sat down at George Washington's desk and told us everything wrong with the place.

I'm not even angry. I'm disappointed.

Here's the picture he painted:

He mocked the people who supposedly think America "becomes less the more people it welcomes."

Said it belongs "only to those with the right accent or the right shade of skin."

Called our streets a place where "masked agents" are "terrorizing" people.

Said the country's wealth was built by "calloused, dirt-streaked hands" and then left to rot.

Looked out from Washington's desk and called the Americans who built this economy "small" and "weak."

Okay Mamdani. You hate it so much, why'd you come here?

Let's put that picture up against the actual country.

He's a Muslim kid born in Uganda and he's the mayor of New York. A guy back in his own birthplace said it plainly: over there he'd have had to claw his way in. Here we held the door open.

We've got the most diverse Congress in our history. It was never about skin color, no matter how many years the left spent forcing that story onto a country that kept proving them wrong.

A machine that grinds immigrants down? Nearly half the Fortune 500 was started by immigrants or their kids. 231 companies.

Apple, son of a Syrian.

Google, a kid who came over from the Soviet Union.

Amazon, son of a Cuban.

Put them together and they out-earn Japan, out-earn Germany. That's not a country grinding people into the dirt. That's a country handing them the keys.

It's been and always will be the land of opportunity.

And more people want in here than anywhere else alive. 53 million immigrants live here, the most of any nation on earth. We're 4% of the world's people and we hold 17% of the world's migrants.

Every year since 2007 you ask the whole planet where it'd go if it could go anywhere, the answer comes back the same. America. Number one. The line to get in wraps around the globe.

Here's the line he won't draw. I will.

Legal immigration built this country. The strivers. That's the front door working the way it's supposed to, and I'll defend it all day. You need to earn your spot, respect our laws and customs.

But that's not what we're running anymore.

Four years of Biden's open border blew the doors off. The foreign-born share of this country just hit 15.8%. An all-time high. Higher than Ellis Island, more than triple what it was in 1970.

The Census Bureau didn't expect that number until 2042 and we smashed past it. And on top of it, a record 14 million people here illegally, who cut in front of every single person who did it the right way.

The front door built America from Ellis Island to today. The fence is a different thing. Pretending they're the same is how you end up calling every American who wants a secure border a bigot.

And we've earned the right to standards. This is the most wanted country on the planet. We get to choose who walks in. You want in? Build something. Contribute. Earn it. Nobody's owed anything.

You come illegally, you commit crimes, you steal from taxpayers, you should get deported. That's not terrorizing the streets.

Mamdani walked through that front door in 2018. He of all people should be defending it. Instead he stood at Washington's desk and spent his speech blurring the line between the people who came the right way and the ones who broke in.

The man even admitted out loud that America is exceptional. Then spent the rest explaining why it isn't. On the one day the whole country stops to celebrate itself, he reached for the darkest story he could find.

That's not a man who's lost about America. That's a man who's angry at the country that gave him everything he has.

You don't like it here? Nobody made you come.

Nobody's stopping you from leaving. But you won't. They never do. Because there's nowhere else on earth that hands a person this much of a shot.

This country took him in and made him a mayor. He owes it. It doesn't owe him a thing.

We're not perfect. We're the best odds a human being has ever been handed. 250 years old, the richest and freest country alive, and the whole world is still clawing to get in while nobody's trying to leave.

They hold America to a standard they'd never hold anyone else to, then act shocked it falls short.

It's nonsense.

Respect the country. Especially when it's the reason you're standing at that desk at all.

[Hassan Akbari @hassanience]

@iaindunning Or you can buy 8192 GPUs for (roughly) $500M and spend the rest on comp, data, power, etc
Space + power for running 8192 GPUs is roughly $100M per year MAX.

[Hassan Akbari @hassanience]

@demishassabis @Steve_Yegge Sir Demis has spoken!
These clickbait/ragebait accounts should be banned from X.
Been super frustrating to get quality content on this platform lately.

[Neda S @NedaSa_]

The current USCIS hold has triggered a near-complete shutdown of LEGAL Iranian STEM workforce (n=43):•93% have zero income
•67.4% already lost work authorization
•50% at risk of losing housing
USCIS is crushing legal high-skilled US-based talents @David_J_Bier @norbertjmichel

[Reza Pahlavi @PahlaviReza]

Mr. @SecMullinDHS, as you step into your new position I ask you to provide particular consideration to the status of Iranian students and professionals in the United States who may be at risk of immigration complications due to Presidential Proclamations 10949 and 10998. Many of these individuals fled the Islamic Republic’s because they believe in freedom, democracy, and the values this country stands for. They are also contributing to the United States every day.

They arrived in this country legally, followed the rules, respect this country and its system of law and order and are among the most dedicated and accomplished contributors to American society. I ask that you and your department consider these factors, plus the personal and political risk many of these young people would face if sent back to the criminal regime in Iran.

America’s concerns for its national security and the threat posed by the Islamic regime to the homeland are entirely justified. To that end, my office stands ready to provide you and your colleagues with regime operatives, propaganda agents, and influence networks for investigation and removal from the United States.

Thank you for your consideration.

[Suzy @NasabSusan16654]

The ongoing USCIS hold on processes including OPT, EAD, H-1B visas, change of status, and green card applications is creating serious uncertainty for Iranian students, researchers, and professionals.
Many of us are now at risk of losing our legal status, jobs, and opportunities to contribute to research, innovation, and education in the United States.

#LiftTheHold
#USCISPause

[Kambiz Hosseini @kambizhosseini]

You weren’t around when we rose from nothing and built one of the world’s great civilizations. Watch your language when you speak about the people of Iran.
As for the Islamic Republic, the Ayatollahs, and the IRGC, be our guest, and take them back to the Big Bang! If you can. We will be happy to see them wipe off the earth, and we definitely thank you for it.

But respect the people of Iran. Don’t lose your allies.

[Peyman Milanfar @docmilanfar]

USCIS PM-602-0194 is quietly upending lives of many Iranian students & professionals by freezing their immigration processing. These talented folks have worked incredibly hard to build lives here. Punishing them with indefinite legal uncertainty is against US national interest

[Ali Tamaseb @alitamaseb]

Iranian-born doctors, researchers, engineers, entrepreneurs in the U.S. are <1% of legal immigrants but produce >15% of AI papers, >20% of patents, are behind life saving drug discoveries, large percentage of medical doctors in the country and comprise a meaningful part of the workforce in Silicon Valley, including entrepreneurs who have created 10s of thousands of jobs for Americans, all of whom are legal immigrants and have passed through prior security screening.
The #USCISPause Proclamation 10988 is putting undue burden on tens of thousands, who are losing legal status, cannot renew green cards, cannot get a green card to stay with their US Citizen spouses, losing job offers and have to get deported. All they are asking is the pause to be lifted and to go through normal processing and further vetting and security clearance if needed in order to be able continue their jobs and remain with family. @marcorubio @SenMullin @USCISJoe @USCIS @realDonaldTrump @RoKhanna @RepKevinMullin @SpeakerPelosi @SenAdamSchiff

[Hassan Akbari @hassanience]

NYers, you deserve every single bit of this journey 😂
Everyone warned you.

[Bloomberg @business]

Zohran Mamdani is proposing to raise NY's estate tax to 50% and have it kick in at $750,000 instead of more than $7 million https://t.co/VAJuZFSFV3

[Lord Immy Kant @KantInEastt]

The return of Persia (2026 - ♾️)

[Rep. Nancy Mace @RepNancyMace]

Iran is not Iraq. Anyone saying otherwise doesn't understand Middle East geopolitics, the Iranian people, their neighbors, or the diaspora. The Iranian people hate this regime. The Gulf States hate this regime.

The world is safer without this regime.

[Hassan Akbari @hassanience]

@Cobratate You are surprisingly dumb

[Hassan Akbari @hassanience]

😂😂😂😂

[Joel Berry @JoelWBerry]

Mayor Mamdani announcing he will be conducting retaliatory strikes against 2nd Avenue Kosher Deli

[Joey Salads @JoeySalads]

Obama sent them billions of dollars,
Trump sent them to hell.

[🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸 @mrddmia]

Praying for @BarackObama, who lost his spiritual leader.

[Yael Bar tur @yaelbt]

My thoughts are with the Columbia University faculty during these dark times 🙏

[Hassan Akbari @hassanience]

@jhgjdffdgdgsetr 😂😂😂

[Hassan Akbari @hassanience]

@ShahanshahCyrus 😂😂😂