Angela Lang / CNET
Samy Bengio, a prominent research manager in Google’s artificial intelligence division, said on Tuesday that he was resigning from the company. The move comes after months of unrest following the sensational expulsions of two AI ethics researchers on his team.
Bengio, a 14-year veteran of the search giant, worked in the Google Brain unit, which focused on deep learning and artificial intelligence. Google confirmed Bengio’s resignation but declined to comment further. Bengio did not respond to a request for comment.
“I have learned so much from all of you, of course in terms of machine learning research, but also how difficult and yet important it is to organize a large team of researchers to achieve long-term ambitious research, exploration, accuracy, diversity and inclusion,” he said. Bengio, according to Bloomberg, wrote in an email to staff who had previously reported the news. He made no mention in the letter of the other employees’ departure, the report said.
Bengio is the highest rank of Google’s employee who has left since the AI’s ethics unit was thrown into chaos in December. Timnit Gebru, one of the few prominent black women in the field, announced on Twitter that she had been fired due to a research article citing the risks of bias in AI, including in systems used by Google’s search engine.
Two months later, Google Margaret Mitchell fired, who co-led the company’s ethical AI team with Gebru, following an investigation into her handling of company data. Mitchell allegedly used automated software to go through her old messages to find examples of discriminatory treatment against Gebru.
In the days after Gebru’s departure, he expressed his support for the researcher in a post on Facebook. “I stand by you, Timnite,” he wrote. “I also stand by the rest of my team who, like me, were dumbfounded and trying to make it all make sense.”
The episode woke Google’s AI team. In February, Google said it was restructuring its teams focusing on responsible AI development. The new team is led by Marian Croak, a vice president of engineering at the technology giant.