Sundar Pichai Apologises As Controversy Over Firing Google’s Top AI Researcher Flares Up Questions Of Racism

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has apologised to staff and started an investigation into the firing of prominent AI researcher Timnit Gebru.

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New Delhi: On Wednesday, Sundar Pichai apologized to employees and launched an investigation into how the company handled the departure of prominent AI researcher Timnit Gebru. According to media reports, Dr. Gebru said last week that the company fired her after she sent an email that criticized the company’s lack of progress in hiring women and minorities as well as biases built into its artificial intelligence technology. She said that she had demanded an explanation for why the company had told her to retract a paper that pinpointed flaws in a new breed of language technology, including a system built by Google that underpins the company’s search engine. Last week on Twitter revealed that she was fired abruptly from Google, she tweeted “I was fired by JeffDean for my email to Brain women and Allies.' This was during the time when the team was in the middle of research of which she was very much a big part.

I was fired by @JeffDean for my email to Brain women and Allies. My corp account has been cutoff. So I've been immediately fired :-)

— Timnit Gebru (@timnitGebru) December 3, 2020

Dr. Gebru's departure opens two topics - lack of diversity in its workforce and concerns about the dangerous consequences of artificial intelligence technology. On Tuesday, a heated meeting took with the Black Googler Network that left attendees questioning their trust in Google and their support of its AI work. Jeff Dean, one of Google’s most senior executives who oversee the company’s A.I. research arm, met with a group of employees on Tuesday to explain what took place with Dr. Gebru, but many walked away from the meeting even more upset. The controversy has sparked outrage on social media, current and former employees of Google signed a petition demanding an explanation and more transparency stating that the real reason for her dismissal was her outspoken criticism of Google’s progress on improving conditions for people of color at the company. The matter seemed to have spiraled out of control which forced Pichai to apologise. "We need to accept responsibility for the fact that a prominent Black, female leader with immense talent left Google unhappily," Pichai wrote in an email to the staff first published by Axios on Wednesday. We need to assess the circumstances that led up to Dr. Gebru's departure, examining where we could have improved and led a more respectful process,” said Pichai in an email. Pichai however did not touch upon why was she fired as alleged by Gebru on social media.