More than 1,200 Google workers condemn firing of AI scientist Timnit Gebru

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

More than 1,200 Google workers condemn firing of AI scientist Timnit Gebru

More than 1,500 researchers also sign letter after Black expert on ethics says Google tried to suppress her research on bias

Julia Carrie Wong in San Francisco and agencies
@juliacarriew
Fri 4 Dec 2020 19.48 GMT

More than 1,200 Google employees and more than 1,500 academic researchers are speaking out in protest after a prominent Black scientist studying the ethics of artificial intelligence said she was fired by Google after the company attempted to suppress her research and she criticized its diversity efforts.

Timnit Gebru, who was the technical co-lead of Google’s Ethical AI team, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that she had been fired after sending an email to an internal group for women and allies working in the company’s AI unit.

The email, which was first published by the tech newsletter Platformer, referenced a dispute over a research paper, but more broadly expressed frustration at Google’s diversity programs. In it, Gebru argued that “there is zero accountability” or real incentive for Google leadership to change. “Your life gets worse when you start advocating for underrepresented people, you start making the other leaders upset,” Gebru wrote. “There is no way more documents or more conversations will achieve anything.”

Gebru is one of the most well-known and respected Black female scientists working in AI. Before joining Google, she co-authored a widely cited 2018 paper that found higher error rates in facial analysis technology for women with darker skin tones. She also co-founded the non-profit Black in AI that aims to increase representation of people of color in the field.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/dec/04/timnit-gebru-google-ai-fired-diversity-ethics

[tblue37]

1. Remember their "Don't be evil" motto? No? I don't think they do now, either.

[Mike 03]

2. Everybody is going to want to read that research paper now.

This is a depressing story.

[Demovictory9]

3. Kick

[Backseat Driver]

4. Hmmm...interesting...perhaps she needs to walk right over to

DeepMind, an entirely different part of Alphabet, Inc. involved in ethics and AI in entirely new ways that the Big G isn't, and tell them she's available.