More than
1,400 Google employees
along with more than
1,900 academics and members of civil society
on Friday demanded that the tech giant Google explain why it
fired a black employee
, an investigator of ethics issues related to artificial intelligence (AI).
Timnit Gebru tweeted Wednesday that Google had unlinked her after she sent an
to a group internal to the company lamenting the "silencing of
marginalized voices
.
"
He also said in that email that the company had ordered him to retract a research paper.
Gebru is an advocate for diversity and co-founder of a group dedicated to
driving the talent of black people
in the realm of artificial intelligence.
As of Tuesday, she was a researcher and co-director of an AI ethics team at Google.
Gebru tweeted what he said was Google's termination message, noting that "aspects of the email he sent last night to non-management employees reflect
behavior that is inconsistent with the expectations
of a manager of Google".
The research paper Gebru was asked to retract analyzed the potential of an artificial intelligence tool used by Google and other tech companies to
mimic human writing of hate speech
and skewed language, according to a report by US public radio. , NPR.
The head of artificial intelligence at Google, Jeff Dean, justified the request for retraction of the investigation in an email that was made public and in which he explained that
the article did not meet the levels required
for publication.
Just over 1,400 Google employees were among the nearly 3,300 headings in a letter posted online asking the tech giant for
explanations both about Gebru's firing and why
it was ordered to withdraw its investigation.
The letter demands that Google make an "unequivocal" commitment to the integrity of research and academic freedom.
"Rather than being accepted by Google as an
exceptionally talented
and prolific contributor, Gebru has faced defensiveness, racism, censorship in research and a retaliatory firing," the letter says.
His firing comes when a US federal agency called Google on Wednesday to
respond to allegations of surveillance
against its activist employees.
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