A Prominent AI Ethics Researcher Says Google Fired Her

She says the manager asked her to either retract or remove her name from a research paper she had coauthored, because an internal review had found the contents objectionable.The paper discussed ethical issues raised by recent advances in AI technology that works with language, which Google has said is important to the future of its business. If not, she would arrange to depart the company at a later date, leaving her free to publish the paper without the company’s affiliation.Gebru also sent an email to a wider list within Google’s AI research group saying that managers’ attempts to improve diversity had been ineffective. The disputed paper is undergoing peer review by an academic conference independent of Google and may still be published in some form.Dean’s intervention fueled the anger felt by some AI researchers sympathetic to Gebru’s cause—something that could damage Google’s ability to retain and hire top AI talent pursued vigorously by all major tech companies.“Even if we put aside the censorship of the article, firing a researcher that way is chilling,” says Julien Cornebise, an honorary associate professor at University College London who previously worked at Alphabet’s London AI lab DeepMind and has talked with AI researchers inside and outside of Google about Gebru’s plight.