Google fired Margaret Mitchell, co-leader of the AI ethics team, after she used an automated script to scan her emails to find evidence of discrimination against her co-worker Timnit Gebru. The news was first reported by Axios.
Mitchell’s resignation comes a day after Google announced a reorganization of its AI teams that work ethically and fairly. Marian Croak, vice president of the engineering organization, now leads “a new center of expertise in responsible AI within Google Research,” according to a blog post.
Mitchell joined Google in 2016 as a senior research scientist, according to his LinkedIn. Two years later, she helped start the AI ethics team alongside Gebru, a renowned researcher known for her work on prejudice in facial recognition technology.
In December 2020, Mitchell and Gebru were working on an article on the dangers of great language processing models when Megan Kacholia, vice president of Google Brain, asked that the article be withdrawn. Gebru stepped back, saying the company needed to be more open about why the research was not acceptable. Shortly thereafter, she was fired, although Google characterized her departure as a resignation.
After Gebru’s termination, Mitchell became openly critical of Google executives, including Google’s AI division chief Jeff Dean and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. In January, she lost access to corporate email after Google started investigating her activity.
“After conducting an analysis of this manager’s conduct, we confirmed that there were several violations of our code of conduct, as well as our security policies, which included leaking confidential business documents and private data from other employees,” Google said in a statement. communicated to Axios about Mitchell’s resignation.
On Friday, Google announced it was making changes to its search and diversity policies after an investigation into the closure of Gebru. In an internal email, Jeff Dean apologized to the team for the way Gebru’s departure was handled. “I heard and recognized what Dr. Gebru’s departure meant for women technologists, for those in the black community and other underrepresented groups looking for careers in technology, and for many who care deeply about the responsible use of AI By Google. This has led some to question their place here, which I regret, ”he said.
The AI ethics team has been in crisis since Gebru’s resignation in December. After the reorganization announcement yesterday, senior researcher Alex Hanna wrote that the team was unaware of Croak’s nomination until the news was made public Wednesday night. “We were told to trust the process, to trust decision makers like Marian Croak to look after our interests,” she said on Twitter. “But those decisions were made behind our back.”