{"id":171917,"date":"2021-02-05T15:55:49","date_gmt":"2021-02-05T12:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/google-engineers-quit-after-the-company-fired-its-star-ai-ethics-researcher\/"},"modified":"2021-02-05T15:55:49","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T12:55:49","slug":"google-engineers-quit-after-the-company-fired-its-star-ai-ethics-researcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/google-engineers-quit-after-the-company-fired-its-star-ai-ethics-researcher\/","title":{"rendered":"#Google engineers quit after the company fired its star AI ethics researcher"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Google engineers quit after the company fired its star AI ethics researcher<\/strong>”
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\n Two Google engineers have quit the company over the firing of AI researcher Timnit Gebru, whose controversial termination\u00a0in December sparked an internal backlash about ethics and diversity.<\/p>\n

David Baker, who led the\u00a0engineering team for Google Trust and Safety, said he was resigning after more than 16 years because Gebru\u2019s departure had \u201cextinguished [his] desire to continue as a Googler.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Software engineer Vinesh Kannan has also left the company. He tweeted that Google\u2019s treatment of Gebru and diversity recruiter Abril Christina Curley \u201chad crossed a personal red line.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Yesterday was my last day at Google. I left because Google’s mistreatment of @timnitGebru<\/a> and @RealAbril<\/a> crossed a personal red line I wrote down when I started the job. I know I gained a lot from Google, but I also gained a lot from both of their work, and they were wronged.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Vinesh Kannan (@vineshgkannan) February 3, 2021<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gebru\u00a0is a widely-respected AI ethicist, who\u2019s best known for\u00a0a landmark study<\/a> on\u00a0race and gender biases in facial recognition systems.<\/span><\/p>\n

[Read: How much does it cost to buy, own, and run an EV? It\u2019s not as much as you think]<\/em><\/p>\n

She lost her job\u00a0at\u00a0Google after the company asked her to retract a research paper about the risks of\u00a0large-scale language models \u2014 which are used in many of the firm\u2019s\u00a0products.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gebru then sent an email to colleagues expressing her frustration with the response and the company\u2019s wider issues around diversity.<\/p>\n

In a letter<\/a>\u00a0dated January 5 that was posted to LinkedIn, Baker said her exit had undermined his efforts to build trustworthy products and support diversity.<\/p>\n

The departure of Timnit, a world-renowned Black female researcher in the ethical app<\/a>lication of computer technology<\/a> working on a paper critical of Google technology that Google would not approve, undermines both of these influences.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Curley has been a prominent public defender of Gebru and critic of Google\u2019s diversity efforts.<\/p>\n

In December, she\u00a0said<\/a> she was fired because the company was \u201ctired of hearing me call them out on their racist bullshit.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Take it from ME- their most successful BLACK QUEER WOMAN recruiter who they fired in the middle of a MF pandemic because they were tired of hearing me call them out on their racist bullshit.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Real Abril\ud83c\udf08 (@RealAbril) December 21, 2020<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Baker cited the company\u2019s lack of diversity in his resignation letter:<\/p>\n

We cannot say we believe in making a more understanding, informed world, and then ignore how our products amplify biases. We cannot say we believe in diversity, and then ignore the conspicuous absence of many voices from within our walls.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The resignations of Baker and Kannan come amid mounting internal dissent about Google\u2019s AI work.<\/p>\n

Thousands of employees and external supporters\u00a0have signed an open letter<\/a>\u00a0expressing solidarity with Gebru and calling for Google to\u00a0honor the commitments made in its AI Principles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The new Alphabet Workers Union also cited Gebru\u2019s exit<\/a> as one of the reasons for its formation.<\/p>\n

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has attempted to subdue their anger by pledging to investigate her departure and apologizing for it causing staff\u00a0 \u201cto question their place at Google.\u201d But the tensions continue to escalate.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Published February 5, 2021 \u2014 12:55 UTC<\/p><\/div>\n