OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google on Thursday appointed Marian Croak, one of its few black executives, to oversee responsible artificial intelligence (AI) research after weeks of internal anger over the dismissal of a prominent scientist black.
Google has confirmed that Croak will manage 10 teams, including a dozen scientists studying the ethical considerations of automated technologies known as AI. Ethical AI co-leader Timnit Gebru said in December that Google abruptly fired it for challenging company requests.
Employees for weeks have expressed concern that Gebru’s criticisms of Google would lead to unfair punishments, and Croak has been among executives who are trying to broker a path between the team and management.
Croak, a vice president of engineering who will report to Google’s AI chief Jeff Dean, told employees at a meeting on Thursday that she respected Gebru and that what happened to her was unfortunate.
In a video on the Google blog, she also acknowledged disagreements in the areas of research that are now under her jurisdiction. “There are a lot of conflicts now on the pitch, and it can sometimes be polarizing, and what I would like to do is just allow people to talk in a more diplomatic way,” she said.
Google employee Alex Hanna on Twitter called the Croak news “a betrayal”, saying it occurred behind the back of the Ethical AI team and did not respond to demands made by the team after Gebru’s resignation.
Gebru said in a statement: “Marian is a highly accomplished pioneer scientist that I admired and even trusted. It is incredibly painful to see it legitimize what Jeff Dean and his subordinates did for me and my team. ”
Croak, who was previously working with website reliability for Google, will also supervise teams that do research related to accessibility, social welfare and justice in health algorithms.
Reporting by Paresh Dave and Jeffrey Dastin; Christopher Cushing’s Edition