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- Timnit Gebru, co-technical lead of Google’s ethical artificial intelligence team, said in a series of tweets on Wednesday that she had been fired by the tech giant.
- She claims to have been fired by email sent to an internal company group. According to Gebru reports, she offered her resignation, but Gebru says management jumped the gun.
- Gebru learned that aspects of an email she sent to employees were “incompatible with the expectations of a Google manager.”
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Timnit Gebru, co-technical lead of Google’s ethical artificial intelligence team, said in a series of tweets on Wednesday that she had been fired by the tech giant.
Gebru is widely respected for her work on bias in artificial intelligence and is a rare senior black woman in the field.
As she said on Twitter, she had previously had discussions with Google about her resignation if the company was unable to meet certain conditions. She did not publicly state what those conditions were.
She wrote: “Apparently, my supervisor’s manager sent an email to my direct reports saying she accepted my resignation. I had not resigned – I had asked for simple conditions first and had said I would answer when I got back from vacation. But I guess she decided on me 🙂 … “
Gebru says Google immediately fired her via a separate email she sent to an internal corporate group called Google Brain Women and Allies, whose content was not shared at the time of publication.
Gebru cited the email she received from a senior manager informing her of her dismissal. The response said that Gebru’s email to Brain Group employees was “inconsistent” with the expectations of a Google official.
Here is the email cited by Gebru:
“Thank you for clarifying your terms. We cannot accept # 1 and # 2 as you request. We respect your decision to leave Google as a result and we accept your resignation.”
“However, we believe that the end of your employment should come sooner than your email reflects, as aspects of the email you sent last night to non-management employees at the think tank reflect a behavior that does not meet the expectations of a Google manager. “
“Therefore, we accept your resignation immediately, effective today. We will send your final paycheck to your address in Workday. When you return from vacation, PeopleOps will contact you to coordinate the return of Google devices and assets. . “
Gebru also called Google’s chief AI officer Jeff Dean, who oversees the entire division and who, Use points, probably would have approved the email sent to him on Wednesday. “He didn’t like my email to a mailing list for women and brain allies,” she added.
Gebru responded to Business Insider’s request for comment by indicating a tweet in which she said she had to “proceed very carefully and speak to a lawyer as soon as possible”. Business Insider has reached out to Google for comment.
Gebru has become a renowned figure in the ethical AI space, whose work has explored algorithmic biases and the implications of data mining. Gebru also co-founded Black in AI, a collaborative community that works to increase the number of blacks working in artificial intelligence.
As Gebru tweeted the details of her layoff on Wednesday, big names in the AI and tech space rallied around her.
“I thought it was a joke because it seemed ridiculous that anyone firing @timnitGebru given their expertise, skills, influence,” tweeted former Reddit CEO Ellen K. Pao. “This is one of the many times that I think there is just no hope for the tech industry.”
Alex Hanna, a researcher also working for Google’s artificial intelligence team, wrote on Twitter: “The amount of disrespect and waste that @timnitGebru is currently the target of our employer. Google could be one of the leaders in researching the social implications of AI and technology. But they choose to go the other way. “
Gebru’s dismissal comes just hours after the U.S. National Labor Relations Board alleged in a complaint that Google illegally interviewed, monitored and fired militant employees last year.
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