Google suspended an artificial intelligence ethics researcher weeks after firing another member of the team, a newly formed union said.
The Alphabet Workers Union, created by employees of Google’s parent company, said in a statement this week that it was “concerned about the suspension of corporate access by Margaret Mitchell, a union member and chief researcher.
Mitchell’s suspension came in response to the download and sharing of company documents, according to a Google statement to Axios, which reported that the documents were intended to show discriminatory treatment by Timnit Gebru, another member of the AI ethics team, who was fired last year.
“Together, they are an attack on people who are trying to make Google’s technology more ethical,” the union said in a statement.
Google faced criticism last month after Gebru was forced to leave after she claimed to have been ordered to withdraw a research article.
The tech giant did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP. In a statement to Axios, Google said Mitchell’s email account was blocked pending an internal investigation into downloading large numbers of files and sharing them with people outside the company.
Last month, more than 1,400 Google employees were among nearly 3,300 names in an online letter calling on the tech giant to explain Gebru’s resignation along with the reason for ordering her to withdraw her research.
The letter required Google to make an “unambiguous” commitment to research integrity and academic freedom.
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