Google fired Mitchell, a lead researcher, in February after a controversy.
New York:
Google on Tuesday confirmed a leader of its artificial intelligence team has resigned in a room following the controversial dismissal of two colleagues.
The internet giant declined to comment further on the resignation of Samy Bengio, who has worked at Google for about four years and specializes in machine learning.
“As I look forward to my next challenge, there’s no doubt that it’s really hard to leave this amazing team,” Bengio wrote in a work email first quoted by Bloomberg.
Bengio did not refer to Timnit Gebru or Margaret Mitchell, two former members of the team that focused on ethical artificial intelligence.
Google fired Mitchell, a lead researcher, in February after controversy last year over the dismissal of tech giant Gebru, a staunch proponent of diversity.
Bengio expressed solidarity with Gebru in a message shared on Facebook on Tuesday.
“I have been and will always be a strong supporter of her scientific work to ensure that AI becomes a positive force for minors, as well as her generosity and tireless action to uplift the voices of the silent,” Bengio said of Used in the post.
According to a statement from Google earlier this year, Mitchell downloaded company documents and shared them with Axios, who reported that it was an attempt to discriminate in the treatment of Gebru, who was fired last year.
In December, more than 1,400 Google employees demanded that the company explain why it had fired Gebru.
“It’s sad to see this happen to the one director in the research organization who did the right thing,” Gebru said of Bengio on Twitter.
Mitchell used Twitter to thank Bengio for supporting her and Gebru and for providing them with an inclusive environment.
“But once you ‘see’ sexism and racism, it can remain untenable with an organization that stands by it,” Mitchell said in a tweet, predicting that more members of her former team would quit Google.
“There’s a lot of interest in responsible / ethical AI outside of Google, so people we’ve worked with have a lot of options.”
(Except for the headline, this story was not processed by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)