The newly formed alphabet workers’ union of Google employees has said it is concerned about Google’s decision to block senior AI ethics researcher Margaret Mitchell from her account.
Google blocked it after discovering that it was downloading material related to Timnit Gebru, another AI ethics researcher who was forced to leave the company last month.
The news was first reported on Wednesday by Axios, who said Google is investigating Mitchell’s recent actions. Mitchell allegedly used automated scripts to search through his messages to find examples of discriminatory treatment for Gebru.
“The Alphabet Workers Union (AWU) is concerned about the suspension of corporate access by Margaret Mitchell, an AWU member and leader of the Ethical AI team,” the union said in a statement. “This suspension follows the dismissal by Google of former co-leader Timnit Gebru; together they are an attack on people trying to make Google’s technology more ethical.”
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC, but a spokesman told Axios: “Our security systems automatically block an employee’s corporate account when they detect that the account may be compromised due to accreditation issues or when an automatic rule involving the management of sensitive data has been triggered. “
The spokesman added: “In this case, yesterday our systems detected that an account had leaked thousands of files and distributed them to several external accounts. I explained this to the employee earlier today.”
Gebru’s departure
Gebru, who was the technical co-leader of the Google Ethical AI team, posted on December 3 that Google fired her because of a disagreement over a research paper that examined bias in artificial intelligence. The researcher, who was honest about the company’s treatment of black employees, said the treatment points to a broader model at Google. It led to a wave of support from across the industry, including a petition signed by thousands of Google employees and industry colleagues.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai sent an e-mail to employees, apologizing for the mistrust in the company and industry in Gebru’s departure, while promising that the company would launch a “review” of what did not worked well.
About a week later, Google’s AI ethics team sent Google a list of requests to “rebuild trust” after Gebru was removed from the company.
The team, which says it provides research, product and policy advice, wrote a six-page letter to Pichai, AI chief Jeff Dean and engineering vice president Megan Kacholia. The letter, entitled “The Future of AI Ethics in Google Research” and seen by CNBC, lists the demands of executives, including removing Kacholia from the group’s reporting structure, refraining from retaliation and restoring Gebru to a higher level.
Who is Margaret Mitchell?
Mitchell founded Google’s AI ethics team and is one of the co-leaders. AWU described her as a “critical member” of the academic and industrial communities around the ethical production of AI. He’s been with Google for just over four years and is in Seattle, according to LinkedIn.
“Regardless of the outcome of the company’s investigation, the continued targeting of leaders in this organization calls into question Google’s commitment to ethics – in AI and in their business practices,” AWU said. “Many members of the AI ethics team are members of AWU, and our union members recognize the crucial work they are doing and stand in solidarity with them at this time.”
Referring to Google’s statement to Axios, AWU said it marked a “notable deviation from Google’s typical practice of refusing to comment on staffing issues.”
AWU announced its launch on January 4. Executive Chairman Hair Koul and Vice President Chewy Shaw co-authorized a the song from The New York Times entitled, “I Built Google. It’s not the company we want to work for. “
He took the lead on Jan. 7, urging YouTube executives to take stronger action against former President Donald Trump.
The union criticized YouTube, owned by Google, for not banning Trump’s account on the platform after the pro-Trump riots in Washington that left five people dead and injured. The group called the company’s decision to reactivate its videos “lightless” and said the company should ban its account.
– Additional reporting by CNBC’s Jennifer Elias.