Google’s newly formed Alphabet Workers Union said it was concerned about Google’s decision to exclude senior AI researcher Margaret Mitchell from her account.
Google excluded her after finding out she 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, which said Google was investigating Mitchell’s recent actions. Mitchell reportedly used automated texts to look at her messages to find examples of discriminatory treatment of Gebru.
“The Alphabet Workers Union (AWU) is concerned about the suspension of corporate access from Margaret Mitchell, member of the AWU and leader of the Ethical AI team,” the union said in a statement. “This suspension comes on the heels of Google’s dismissal of former co-leader Timnit Gebru; it’s an attack on the people trying to make Google’s technology more ethical.”
Google did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment, but a spokesman told Axios: “Our security systems automatically close an employee’s corporate account when they find out that the account is in danger due to faith issues or if an automatic rule with handling sensitive data was caused. “
The spokesman added: “In this case, our systems found out yesterday that an account filtered thousands of files and shared them with several external accounts. We explained this to the employee earlier today.”
Gebru’s departure
Gebru, who was technically co-leader of Google’s Ethical AI team, tweeted on December 3 that Google fired her over a disagreement over a research article that investigated bias in artificial intelligence. The researcher, who was outspoken about the treatment of the company towards black employees, claims that the treatment is an indication of a broader pattern at Google. This has led to a wave of support from across the industry, including a petition signed by thousands of Google employees and peers in the industry.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, sent an email to employees apologizing for the mistrust sown in the company and industry amid Gebru’s departure, while the company promised a “review” “start over what went wrong.
About a week later, Google’s Ethical AI team sent Google executives a list of claims to ‘rebuild trust’ after removing Gebru from the company.
The team, which says it advises on research, products and policies, wrote a six-page letter to Pichai, Jeff Dean, and a vice president, Megan Kacholia, for engineering. The letter, titled “The Future of Ethical AI at Google Research” and seen by CNBC, contains a list of demands from executives, including removing Kacholia from the group’s reporting structure, refraining from retaliation and restoring Gebru on a higher level.
Who’s Margaret Mitchell?
Mitchell founded Google’s Ethical AI team and is one of the co-leaders. The AWU described her as a ‘critical member’ of academic and industry communities around the ethical production of AI. She’s been with Google for just over four years and is based in Seattle, according to LinkedIn.
“Regardless of the outcome of the company’s investigation, the ongoing targeting of leaders in this organization questions Google’s commitment to ethics – in AI and their business practices,” the AWU said. “Many members of the ethical AI team are AWU members and the membership of our union recognizes the important work they are doing and stands in solidarity with them at the moment.”
Referring to Google’s statement to Axios, the AWU said it was a “significant departure from Google’s typical practice of refusing to comment on personnel matters.”
The AWU announced their launch on January 4th. Parul Koul, executive chairman, and Chewy Shaw, vice-chairman, co-authored a piece in The New York Times entitled: “We built Google. This is not the company we want to work for.”
It made its first stand on January 7 and called on YouTube executives to take stronger action against former President Donald Trump.
The union has criticized Google-owned YouTube for failing to ban Trump’s account from the platform following the riots in Washington, DC, which led to several deaths and numerous injuries. The group calls the company’s decision to remove its videos reactively ‘faint’ and says the company should ban its account.
– Additional reporting by CNBC’s Jennifer Elias.