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Google’s old “don’t be bad” slogan has been under fire for years, and it looks like the tech titan is once again being accused of questionable behavior.
The New York Times reports that Timnit Gebru, a black woman co-leader of Google’s artificial intelligence team, has left the company under troubling circumstances. Gebru claimed in a tweet on Wednesday night that she was fired over an email regarding hiring practices and bias in Google’s artificial intelligence technology. Platformer posted the email here.
A Google spokesperson told Wired that Gebru was not fired, but rather resigned.
In the run-up to the email in question, there was an ongoing dispute at Google over a draft report that focused on potentially biased language regarding gender and race in machine learning models of the company. Gebru told WIRED that he had been asked to remove his name from the report or remove the report entirely, and his manager had not provided details of the review process.
After sending the aforementioned email to a larger group of her colleagues, she reportedly received a response warning her of her immediate “resignation”, and she was also banned from her company email. Google chief researcher Jeff Dean later claimed in an email that the article did not meet the publications bar, was too negative for management and did not offer constructive solutions.
Gebru believes his dismissal was linked to his outspokenness on diversity issues. The BBC reports that an open letter of support garnered 2,000 signatures from colleagues and industry peers.
“We argued for representation, but there are hardly any blacks in Google Research and, from what I see, no executive at all,” she told WIRED.
Read more about Gebru’s story and Google’s response here.
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