Google scientist Dr Timnit Gebru's exit exposes rift in its ethical AI unit, head Jeff Dean faces criticism

Dr Timnit Gebru. (PC- Getty Images via AFP/Kimberly White)

Two days after an abrupt departure of Dr Timnit Gebru, Staff Research Scientist and Co-Lead of Ethical Artificial Intelligence (AI) team at Alphabet Inc's Google, the US tech giant's AI division and its head Jeff Dean have come under heavy criticism.

On December 2, renowned scientist and former Google’s Ethical Artificial Intelligence unit co-head Dr Gebru said she was fired over an email she authored - expressing dismay with the management.

Dr Gebru, one of the few Black women in her field, also added that the firm took action for the mail in which she mentioned the way it handled a review of her research.

Following the exit, a group of hundreds of academics and researchers wrote an open letter to Google and demanded that Jeff Dean (Google Senior Fellow and Senior Vice-President of Research), Megan Kacholia (Vice-President of Engineering for the Google Brain organization) and those who were involved with the decision to censor her paper meet with the Ethical AI team to explain the process by which the paper was unilaterally rejected by the leadership.

"The termination is an act of retaliation against Dr. Gebru, and it heralds danger for people working for ethical and just AI — especially Black people and People of Color — across Google," the open letter said.

The new development could damage the reputation of one of the industry’s leading research shops that apart from contributing significantly to the world’s understanding of AI, also aids development of lucrative products.

Meanwhile, Dean has defended his handling of the matter and said Dr Gebru didn't follow company policy in submitting the paper for peer review. Dean also said the peer review ignored "too much relevant research", while Gebru and her colleagues made unrealistic demands when they were informed "that it didn’t meet our bar for publication", reported Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, an expert and Dr Gebru's co-author Joy Buolamwini has also slammed Google and Dean. "Ousting Timnit for having the audacity to demand research integrity severely undermines Google’s credibility for supporting rigorous research on AI ethics," Bloomberg quoted founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, who wrote a ground-breaking paper with Dr Gebru, as saying.

Another former Google policy associate Ifeoma Ozoma expressed similar opinion. "The egregiously aggressive retaliation from Jeff Dean and other senior leaders at Google is indicative of the lack of respect that they have both for Black women and academic freedom and integrity," Ozoma said.

Before posting on Twitter about her dismissal, Dr Gebru in her mail accused Dean’s division of not hiring enough women and silencing employees from marginalized groups. She even had appealed to colleagues to stop working “because it doesn’t make a difference”.

On December 4, Jeff Dean accepted Dr Gebru's resignation and declined to meet the latter's demands about the unpublished research paper.

Dr Gebru, who was one of the five Google staff listed on the research paper, which resulted in her dismissal, had earlier worked at Microsoft Corp.

With Dr Gebru walking out of Google, co-head of the ethical AI team Margaret Mitchell wrote in an email and referenced the departure as a sign of the low morale inthe team. "The chilling effects of the decisions behind-the-scenes continue to haunt me," she said.

However, Dean took a more calibrated tone on Dr Gebru's exit. "I know we all genuinely share Timnit’s passion to make AI more equitable and inclusive. No doubt, wherever she goes after Google, she’ll do great work, and I look forward to reading her papers and seeing what she accomplishes,” he wrote in the email to his staff.