After firing a black scientist, Google professionals sign a petition against company | Technology



Google officials are signing a petition on Wednesday against the resignation of artificial intelligence scientist Timnit Gebru after she sent an internal email accusing Google of “silencing marginalized votes.” Until now, more than 1,500 professionals from the company and 2,200 supporters from academia, civil society and the technology industry have signed the petition.

The researcher announced on Wednesday that she was fired from Google over a conflict over a journalistic article and an email to one of the company’s research groups criticizing the treatment of minority professionals, such as blacks and the disabled. The text written for a communication tool addressed the potential ethical risks of language models.

According to the scientist, the company has asked her to withdraw the article completely or to remove her name and the names of other colleagues. Gebru said he would take his name from the newspaper in exchange for an explanation of why the text was rejected.

She told management that if these conditions could not be met, she “would work at a final meeting,” according to reports on social media.

The researcher said Google refused to comply with the requested conditions and hastened her dismissal due to an email she sent to an internal list called “ Google Brain Women and Allies ” (internal mailing from the ethics and AI research group), criticizing the company’s diversity and inclusion efforts.

On Friday (4), Jeff Dean, Google’s AI leader, drew up a statement saying, “The research work had some important gaps that made us uncomfortable relating to Google.”

Wanted by G1, Google only returned after closing this report.




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