Google parts with top AI researcher after blocking paper, faces blowback
Timnit Gebru’s exit reignites debate over diversity and free speech at tech group. …
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Google struggled on Thursday to limit the fallout from the departure of a top artificial intelligence researcher after the Internet group blocked the publication of a paper on an important AI ethics issue.
Timnit Gebru, who had been co-head of AI ethics at Google, said on Twitter that she had been fired after the paper was rejected.
Jeff Dean, Google’s head of AI, defended the decision in an internal email to staff on Thursday, saying the paper “didn’t meet our bar for publication.” He also described Dr. Gebru’s departure as a resignation in response to Google’s refusal to concede to unspecified conditions she had set to stay at the company.
The dispute has threatened to shine a harsh light on Google’s handling of internal AI research that could hurt its business, as well as the company’s long-running difficulties in trying to diversify its workforce.
Before she left, Gebru complained in an email to fellow workers that there was “zero accountability” inside Google around the company’s claims it wants to increase the proportion of women in its ranks. The email, first published on Platformer, also described the decision to block her paper
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