Google faces firing backlash
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) — More than 1,400 Google employees on Friday demanded that the tech giant explain why it dismissed a Black artificial intelligence ethics researcher. Her research has included showing the likelihood of facial detection technology making mistakes when identifying people of color.
Timnit Gebru tweeted early in the week that Google told her a resignation she had not proffered was accepted, after she sent a message to an internal group lamenting the “silencing of marginalized voices.”
She had also told the “Brain Women and Allies” group in the email that she had been ordered to retract a research paper.
Gebru is an outspoken diversity advocate and co-founder of a group devoted to increasing Black talent in artificial intelligence (AI).
Until Tuesday, she was a staff researcher and co-lead of an ethical AI team at Google.
Gebru tweeted what she said was the dismissal message from Google, which noted that “aspects of the email you sent last night to non-management employees in the brain group reflect behavior that is inconsistent with the expectations of a Google manager.”
Slightly more than 1,400 Google employees were among the nearly 3,300 names on an online letter calling on the tech giant to explain Gebru’s dismissal along with the reason for ordering her to withdraw her research.
Gebru, who is Ethiopian American, earned engineering degrees and a doctorate from Stanford University in Silicon Valley. She has worked at Apple and conducted research at Microsoft.
Her research has included showing the likelihood of facial detection technology making mistakes when identifying people of color.
Her dismissal came just days after a US labor board complaint accused Google of using surveillance, interrogation and other tactics to spy on activist employees.
The letter demanded Google make an “unequivocal” commitment to research integrity and academic freedom.