, a co-lead on Google's ethical AI team who announced last week that she had been fired by the company.she was terminated over a dispute regarding a research paper that she co-authored with several other Googlers. When Gebru sent an email to an employee resource group venting her frustration over the conflict, a manager used it as grounds to expedite her exit,The whole debacle has angered employees and members of the AI field, in which Gebru is a renowned name.
Tensions had been building inside Google for several days before Gebru's termination. Gebru had co-authored a research paper exploring bias in artificial intelligence and submitted it to a research conference. Following an internal review of the paper, Google asked that the paper be retracted or the names of the authors redacted.
Instead, it was because of her condition of demanding the identities of the reviewers, he said, according to two employees who viewed the discussion and asked not to be identified because of fear of retaliation. It also was announced during the call that Croak will work on AI diversity research going forward, and will have a dotted report line to Dean, according to two employees who were on the call. Some employees balked at the decision, pointing out that Croak did not have a background in AI ethics, one of them said.
In an anonymous Googler chat group, some employees aired their frustration after the meeting, according to messages viewed by Business Insider. "Kinda felt insulted by a lot of Jeff Dean's responses," read one. "We get it, anonymous feedback is an important part of the research review process.
horrible