Since Dr. Timnit Gebru announced she had been pushed out of Google, tensions inside have flared.Some employees are questioning their future at the company, but big tech largely funds this field.In 2018, while doing her postdoc at Microsoft Research, Dr. Timnit Gebru co-authored what has become a widely cited study revealing how facial recognition technology was less accurate at identifying women and people of color.
CEO Sundar Pichai has made repeated public calls to build ethical guardrails around artificial intelligence – but he has Gebru pushed back at the time, telling management that if she did not get a full explanation for the retraction request she would discuss setting a date for leaving Google. Just before her exit, she also sent an email to an internal resource group criticizing Google's efforts in diversity. Megan Kacholia, vice president of engineering at Google Research, then emailed Gebru telling her that Google had accepted her resignation.
"Google's short-sighted decision to fire and retaliate against a core member of the Ethical AI team makes it clear that we need swift and structural changes if this work is to continue, and if the legitimacy of the field as a whole is to persevere," read a draft of the letter, viewed by Insider. But while Google showed it could back down with enough pressure, there is now a question mark over whether it can properly oversee its own work in AI, which it profits from immensely. Following Gebru's exit,that Google had introduced a"sensitive topics" review process earlier that year, requiring employees investigating subjects such as race and gender to consult with legal, policy, and public relations teams.
Gebru says, however, that others on the team did come up against rules around sensitive topics."People in my team had their research watered down," she said. Sources inside Google say employees on the ethical AI team are pushing ahead with work, but some have privately remarked about making moves to other companies including Microsoft and Facebook, according to two current employees familiar with those discussions.
Google has been seen as a honeypot for academic talent, attracting recruits with the promise of unlimited resources and freedom to work on some of the biggest problems in AI and other fields. As well as publishing research in this field, Google is one of the biggest contributors to AI research conferences.
techinsider Jumping ship? That is really funny. They must be reading the stuff I write? And it is also the reason why sundar is in charge - gummy and slopey made a huge devious mess then jumped ship.
techinsider not sure they're going to be satisfied with the state of ethical AI at FB
Google/YouTube are crooks. They stole my 9/11 video. They disrespect 9 /11 survivors. 911TribMuseum