Fired for highlighting AI bias: Google staffer

NEW YORK: A Google researcher said she was fired by the company after criticising its approach to minority hiring and the biases built into today’s artificial intelligence systems.
Timnit Gebru, who was a co-leader of Google’s Ethical AI team, tweeted on Wednesday that she was fired because of an email she had sent in which she had expressed exasperation over the issue. A Google spokesperson declined to comment. In an email to staff, Jeff Dean, who oversees Google’s AI work, said Gebru had threatened to resign unless she was told which colleagues deemed her draft paper unpublishable, a demand Dean rejected.