Google CEO stands behind engineer’s firing
Damore claimed men are better suited to coding jobs than women
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said Friday he has no regrets over firing an engineer last year who wrote a memo that said men were more biologically suited for coding jobs over women.
The engineer, James Damore, is suing the company for discrimination against people with conservative political beliefs and white males. Pichai said Damore was let go because it was important for Google to create an “inclusive environment” for its employees.
“We need to create a culture that is more supportive and inclusive for them,” Pichai said, speaking at an event hosted by MSNBC and tech news site Recode at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco. “This was what that was about,” he said.
Damore’s attorney, Harmeet Dhillon, said it’s important for Google to be supportive of all their employees, not just ones of a certain gender or race or those holding a particular perspective on life.
“Google systematically downgrades the feelings, expectations and career hopes, and the importance of many people in its workforce on the basis of gender, race and viewpoint,” she said.
Pichai and Susan Wojcicki, CEO of Google subsidiary YouTube, spoke about the company’s efforts to recruit more women to Google, where only 20 percent of its technical staff are women. Wojcicki said part of the issue is that the number of female computer science graduates needs to
increase and the tech industry needs to do a better job of fighting the stereotypes that its jobs are not interesting and not social.
In addition to Damore’s complaint, Google faces a lawsuit filed by former female employees accusing the company of pay discrimination, interviewer Kara Swisher pointed out.
“Welcome to being a big company,” Pichai said. Google has said it does not have a gender pay gap.
When asked whether Google could allow women who had signed nondisclosure agreements to share stories for the #MeToo movement, the growing online discussion of harassment, Pichai said he personally has no issues with that. Google has previously said that its employment agreements do not prevent employees from discussing the issue of harassment.
At the event, Pichai also addressed the controversy over artificial intelligence, or AI. His company and its parent, Alphabet, have made large investments
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in the technology, using computers to translate languages, sort through large numbers of photos and let cars drive themselves. Comparing it to early humans harnessing fire, Pichai said it makes sense for people to be concerned about the impact that artificial intelligence will have on society — such as the elimination of jobs as more functions become automated.
Pichai said artificial intelligence could help bring advances in health care and that government regulation will help keep the technology in check.
“It’s fair to be worried about AI,” Pichai said. “We want to be thoughtful about it.”
Pichai also spoke about immigration, an issue critical to Bay Area tech companies that hire many engineers born overseas.
“Talented people are increasingly choosing to stay back,” Pichai said. “We need to be welcoming.”
The interview will air at 7 p.m. Friday on MSNBC. It is part of MSNBC and Recode’s “Revolution” series, featuring interviews with people including tech industry executives on topics such as jobs and politics.