Google’s Prominent AI Researcher Resigned

The controversy leading up to Timnit Gerbu’s departure concerned Google’s efforts to disassociate itself from a research paper that Dr. Gebru had co-authored, examining the societal dangers of AI algorithms used by Google, particularly its use of languages. According to a draft copy reviewed by Reuters, the paper contended that technology companies could do more to ensure AI systems aimed at mimicking human writing and speech did not exacerbate historical gender biases and the use of offensive language. The paper was rejected for approval by Jeff Dean for failing to follow the rules set by the company on reviewing submitted academic papers to be published, however, many Google employees have stated that such rules are not ordinarily applied, and in the present case the refusal was discriminatory. Gebru’s team rejected Dean’s argument stating “it is clear that this is a standard which was applied unevenly and discriminatorily.”

According to Dr. Gerbu, as well as a statement written in solidarity by more than 1,200 Google employees, the co-lead did not resign despite what Jeff Dean had stated. Instead, she asked for certain conditions to be met, which included the disclosure of the reason behind Google’s refusal to approve her academic paper, and if such conditions were not met then she would resign. The threat of resignation is not the same as an employee resigning, and what occurred instead was the unilateral termination of her contract by Google. Dr. Gerbu found herself locked out of her office email account just before she was meant to leave for vacation.

In an internal memo released on December 09, the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai apologized for Dr. Gerbu’s departure and that Google could have “led a more respectful process” however, he failed to mention that she was fired and maintained the position that she resigned. Gebru criticized Pichai’s memo on Wednesday in a tweet stating she saw “no plans for accountability and there was further gaslighting in the statement” because it offered no apology for what happened to her. It is important to mention that Google has historically had a diversity issue, as well as a previous 20,000 walkout by its female employees in 2019 over its handling of sexual harassment allegations. Dr. Gerbu was part of only 1.6% of Black women employed at Google and many critics, and Google employees, have seen the termination of the co-lead as an attempt by the tech giant to censor academic research on bias algorithms and internal discrimination. The claim circulating is misleading.