Google recently made the usual diversity, equity, and inclusion headlines, this time with the focus being on bias in artificial intelligence (AI) and the unfolding drama concerning the firing of a lead ethics researcher, Timnit Gebru.
I break this story down to the best of my ability and give my opinions on what is occurring at Google and beyond.
Sources
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
An army of lawyers + comms people worked day's on this. It's classic. Designed to rationalize discrimination as "process" and censorship as "high standards." Most importantly, it's meant to paint Timnit as irrational, and her work as not up to Google's expectations. Don't buy it https://t.co/xABoBp89D1
— Meredith Whittaker (@mer__edith) December 4, 2020
LeCun was professional and earnest, and Gebru and her allies behaved like entitled bullies. At one point she literally told him to try reading a book. Anyway, anyone who hires her after this knows exactly what they're getting. Good luck with that. pic.twitter.com/66jhFDBdSD
— jonstokes.com (@jonst0kes) December 4, 2020
https://twitter.com/katiesiek/status/1334622869519818760 (data violence tweet)
https://www.platformer.news/p/the-withering-email-that-got-an-ethical
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-03/google-s-co-head-of-ethical-ai-says-she-was-fired-over-email?fbclid=IwAR2-OaCu40iR0j_TciBD-j08wNl_9Sjb2Y8f5slHDc-m3KghR1bQUlhQuOo
https://news.mit.edu/2018/study-finds-gender-skin-type-bias-artificial-intelligence-systems-0212
http://proceedings.mlr.press/v81/buolamwini18a.html?mod=article_inline
https://www.axios.com/sundar-pichai-memo-timnit-gebru-exit-18b0efb0-5bc3-41e6-ac28-2956732ed78b.html
https://googlewalkout.medium.com/standing-with-dr-timnit-gebru-isupporttimnit-believeblackwomen-6dadc300d382
Timnit Gebru image By TechCrunch – https://www.flickr.com/photos/techcrunch/30671211838/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=97266712
Google tech talk with Jeff Dean (image) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSaZGT4-6EY