Googleâs restructuring of its AI teams sparks further criticism
The ethical AI team will now report to Marian Croak
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Google has restructured its responsible AI teams in the wake of Timnit Gebruâs firing, sparking further anger from the researcher and her supporters.
The ethical AI teams will now be overseen by Marian Croak, a Black Google executive whoâs credited with inventing the Voice over Internet Protocol.
Google announced her appointment in a blogpost:
Now, sheâs taking on a new project: making sure Google develops artificial intelligence responsibly and that it has a positive impact. To do this, Marian has created and will lead a new center of expertise on responsible AI within Google Research.
Google engineers quit after the company fired its star AI ethics researcher
Timnit Gebru s exit has sparked an outcry at Google
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Two Google engineers have quit the company over the firing of AI researcher Timnit Gebru, whose controversial termination in December sparked an internal backlash about ethics and diversity.
David Baker, who led the engineering team for Google Trust and Safety, said he was resigning after more than 16 years because Gebruâs departure had âextinguished [his] desire to continue as a Googler.â
Software engineer Vinesh Kannan has also left the company. He tweeted that Googleâs treatment of Gebru and diversity recruiter Abril Christina Curley âhad crossed a personal red line.â