Over 1,500 Google employees and more than 2,000 academic, industry and civil society supporters have signed an online petition to stand by the Black scientist and artificial intelligence (AI) ethicist following her alleged wrongful termination.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai apologized to staffers on Wednesday for the company’s handling of AI ethics researcher Dr. Timnit Gebru’s departure.
The Google CEO also pledged to launch a “review” of Gebru’s departure in an attempt to “identify all the points where we can learn.”
Days prior to Pichai’s apology, Gebru – who had been one of the 1.6% of Google’s employees who are Black women – claimed she was terminated from the company shortly after sending an email regarding her disappointment in Google’s approach to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Google AI researcher Nicholas Le Roux, a white man, defended his ex-colleague on Twitter, arguing that the “easiest way to discriminate is to make stringent rules, then to decide when and for whom to enforce them.”
Other individuals, like former Google public relations manager William Fitzgerald, expressed their disagreement with the company’s handling of the situation.
A petition pledging to “Stand With Timnit” was also launched.
“Instead of being embraced by Google as an exceptionally talented and prolific contributor, Dr. Gebru has faced defensiveness, racism, gaslighting, research censorship, and now a retaliatory firing,” the online petition read.
“Don’t paint me as an ‘angry Black woman’ for whom you need ‘de-escalation strategies’ for,” Gebru said in a Twitter response to the email.
Pichai argued in his Wednesday memo that the company should “accept responsibility for the fact that a prominent Black, female leader with immense talent left Google unhappily.”
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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