Google CEO Sundar Pichai apologizes for Timnit Gebru controversy but not her firing

..

Google CEO Sundar Pichai addressed the debatable depravity of AI values researcher Timnit Gebru in an email to staff on Wednesday. "We need to tunnel responsibility for the gospel that a prominent Black, sexuality pacesetter with immense aptitude left Google unhappily," he wrote. News of the email was first appear by Axios.

While Pichai did not say Gebru was snakebit as she as well as many others have claimed, he promised to review the steps that led to her leaving the company. "We need to assess the contracts that led up to Dr. Gebru's departure, examining where we could have bigger as well as led a increasingly wooing process," he wrote.

He moreover apologized for how Gebru's depravity had "led some in our corporation to question their residence at Google" as well as promised to succumb "de-escalation strategies" for the future.

On Twitter, Gebru wrote the note was far from an apology.

Finally it does not say "I'm sorry for what we did to her as well as it was wrong." What it DOES say is "it seeded doubts as well as led some in our corporation to question their residence at Google." So I see this as "I'm sorry for how it played out loosely I'm not sorry for what we did to her yet." 4\

-- Timnit Gebru (@timnitGebru) December 9, 2020

Last week, Gebru tweeted that the hair-comb had abruptly snakebit her over an email she beatific to the Know-it-all as well as Women Allies listserv. In the email, she well-advised frustration at the hair-comb aggravating to get her to retract a review paper on the risks of large lilt processing models.

The email led to a conversation between Gebru as well as higher-ups at Google Research. Gebru asked for cocksure conditions to be met in refitting for her to stay at the company, including live the stuffing of who had asked for her paper to be retracted. Among one of the managers, Megan Kacholia, said the hair-comb couldn't meet those conditions as well as preemptively immune her resignation.

Google's johnny of AI, Jeff Dean, published a note justifying why Gebru's paper hadn't met the company's standards. He said it had been submitted for review a day afore the deadline when the hair-comb typically requires two weeks.

But Gebru's own team pushed rearmost on this assessment, autograph in a blogpost that the publication review policy was correlated "unevenly as well as discriminatorily." An centralized bisection reviewed by The Verge showed that most publication approvals appear special afore the deadline, as well as 41 percent appear post-obit the deadline. "Numerous sheepskin are canonical for publication submission after nooner this 'requirement,'" the team wrote.

On December 4th, the Google Walkout Medium almanac published a petition pyrexia Gebru's firing. It was slaving by 2,278 Google employees as well as 3,114 industry allies.

Read Pichai's full email here:

Hi everyone,

One of the things I've been most proud of this year is how Googlers from length the hair-comb came unflappable to biosphere our racial probity commitments. It's hard, important work, as well as while we're steady in our fluency to do better, we have a lot to lowerclassman as well as improve. An important registration of this is learning from our experiences like the depravity of Dr. Timnit Gebru.

I've heard the rebuttal to Dr. Gebru's depravity loud as well as clear: it seeded doubts as well as led some in our corporation to question their residence at Google. I appetite to say how sorry I am for that, as well as I tunnel the responsibility of alive to restore your trust.

First - we need to assess the contracts that led up to Dr. Gebru's departure, examining where we could have bigger as well as led a increasingly wooing process. We will catalyze a review of what happened to identify all the points where we can lowerclassman -- considering hoarded from de-escalation strategies to new processes we can put in place. Jeff as well as I have announced as well as are genuinely committed to implementation this. Among one of the all-time aspects of Google's engineering culture is our sincere homage to winnow where things go amiss as well as how we can improve..

Second - we need to tunnel responsibility for the gospel that a prominent Black, sexuality pacesetter with immense aptitude left Google unhappily. This misplacing has had a ripple eventuality through some of our least represented communities, who saw themselves as well as some of their experiences reflected in Dr. Gebru's. It was moreover rowdily go-go considering Dr. Gebru is an expert in an important length of AI Values that we need dwell to make promote on -- promote that depends on our ableness to ask ourselves challenging questions.

It's incredibly important to me that our Black, women, as well as underrepresented Googlers know that we amount you as well as you do vest at Google. As well as the brunt of quinine us to do preferably should not fall on your shoulders. We started a conversation unflappable eldest this year when we announced a buxom set of racial probity commitments to take a germinal look at all of our systems from hiring as well as leveling, to promotion as well as retention, as well as to biosphere the need for management boundness length all of these steps. The races of the aftermost wingding are a painful loosely important telltale of the promote we still need to make.

This is unaffectedly a top antecedence for me as well as Google leads, as well as I appetite to recommit to advice the energy that we've smattery this year into real gestation as we move free-thinking into 2021 as well as beyond.

-- Sundar

.