Two months after the jarring departure of a well-known artificial intelligence researcher at Google [nytimes.com], a second A.I. researcher at the company said she was fired after criticizing the way it has treated employees who were working on ways to address bias and toxicity in its artificial intelligence systems. Margaret Mitchell, known as Meg, who was one of the leaders of Google’s Ethical A.I. team, sent a tweet [twitter.com] on Friday afternoon saying merely: “I’m fired.”
The statement went on to claim that Dr. Mitchell had violated the company’s security policies by lifting confidential documents and private employee data from the Google network. The company said previously [axios.com] that Dr. Mitchell had tried to remove such files, the news site Axios reported last month. Dr. Mitchell said on Friday evening that she would soon have a public comment.
[…] Dr. Mitchell’s departure from the company was another example of the rising tension between Google’s senior management and its work force, which is more outspoken than workers at other big companies. The news also highlighted a growing conflict in the tech industry over bias in A.I. [nytimes.com], which is entwined with questions involving hiring from underrepresented communities.
The New York Times [nytimes.com]
[Also Covered By]: WION Web Team [wionews.com], Reuters [reuters.com]
[About Margaret Mitchell]: Tech Times [techtimes.com]
Apart from the sanitized press statements, does anybody know why this is happening at Google ?