When it comes to artificial intelligence, it seems that Google and ethics don’t mix.
The tech giant is back in the news this week after Margaret Mitchell, who until Friday worked as the leader of the Google AI team, announced her resignation via Twitter. Mitchell’s unceremonious action follows in Google’s footsteps dismissing prominent AI ethics expert Dr. Timnit Gebru in December.
“I’m fired,” wrote Mitchell in his short statement.
We contacted Google to confirm that Mitchell was actually fired on Friday and to ask why she was fired. We did not receive an immediate response.
Notably, Mitchell and Dr. Gebru’s matches seem to be very connected. Mitchell publicly criticized Google’s actions towards Dr. Gebru, calling them “something very wrong.”
Gday world.
Entering week 5 of being out of work after witnessing something very wrong, done by my superiors, aiming @timnitGebru.
Exhausted by endless degradation to save the face of the Upper Crust in technology at the expense of minorities’ long-term careers.– MMitchell (@mmitchell_ai) February 15, 2021
Mitchell also wrote that, after its criticism of Google, the company blocked its work accounts in January. According to Axios, Google did this after discovering that Mitchell was using “automated scripts” to look for examples of discrimination against Dr. Gebru.
I’m worried about @timnitGebru is being fired from Google and its relationship to sexism and discrimination. I wanted to share the email I wrote to the Google press on the day my access was interrupted.https: //t.co/O7JPlqJW8L
– MMitchell (@mmitchell_ai) February 5, 2021
Dr. Gebru’s resignation on December 2 came after her submission addressing the lack of women being hired on Google, as well as an internal debate over one of her research papers.
Google confirmed Mitchell’s resignation in a statement to TechCrunch.
SEE TOO: Google paid Android creator Andy Rubin a ton of money after allegations of sexual misconduct
“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 has not always responded so harshly to alleged violations of the code of conduct. In 2018, Google made news when the New York Times reported that the company paid Andy Rubin, the creator of Android, about $ 90 million on his way out the door after allegations of sexual misconduct.