Dec 14, 2020
Whose voices are credible? Whose do we squash? — #ISupportTimnit
For those folks not in tech, this incident — and the patterns it matches are dangerous for so many reasons. I will write more soon, but this is the most important story you might have missed last week.
First — here’s a summary of what happened at Google in the last few weeks (opinions are my own, not my company, all of the details here can be found publicly on the internet):
Google hired an AI ethicist, Dr. Timnit Gebru, to co-lead the Google Ethical Artificial Intelligence group — a team that is helping Big Tech use powerful technology in a principled way. Dr. Gebru’s team worked to ensure that technology companies were living up to their values, putting privacy and people above profits and harm(https://ai.google/principles/).
Dr. Gebru is renowned in ethical AI— lauded by both academics and by Google (check out the tweets from Google AI lead, Jeff Dean , who is rightfully proud of all of Dr. Gebru’s accomplishments).
Jeff Dean himself, who I have met and who most folks across the industry generally revere as a ‘good guy’ has pointed to the dangers of creating powerful AI without guardrails and without a wide set of voices:
Dr. Gebru worked alongside other researchers to work to publish a paper flagging concerns about training models with large volumes text data [More in MIT’s Technology Review]. Google did not publish Dr. Gebru’s paper (which is defendable to a degree, since academic freedom is dampened in a corporate environment), but it doesn’t seem middle ground was reached. Instead Google chose to give her feedback though a bizarre HR process: (From her letter) “Have you ever heard of someone getting “feedback” on a paper through a privileged and confidential document to HR? Does that sound like a standard procedure to you or does it just happen to people like me who are constantly dehumanized?”
Dr. Gebru wrote an email to a internal Google Brain Women and Allies group — expressing the frustration that she had about her experiences being denied and dismissed and about the paper’s opaque review process. Again — to a Women and Allies group — cause if you’re a women, especially a women of color you have seen and been a part of this silencing and double standard— everyone one of us. Critically, Timnit’s work in Ethical AI is critical, and this makes her plea to this alias that much more important.
After Dr. Gebru’s email to this alias, Timnit posted that she was terminated.
Jeff Dean, the Google AI lead, wrote a public letter, and in a tweet, referred to “Timnit’s resignation”.
Dr. Gerbu’s brave colleagues have supporting Gerbru’s account on various social media platforms. A summary about the solidarity shown by Dr. Gebru’s team is at the Verge.
I wrote the above summary for folks who aren’t in tech or folks who haven’t gotten a chance to get caught up. But resist the urge to get lost in the pedantry of the exact HR situation — it’s justified that neither Google nor Dr. Gebru share the exact details, but it’s important to pay attention to how tech companies are listening to or dismissing critiques against powerful technology — especially critiques that they supposedly welcome and PAY for. Reminder: her job at Google was to be an ethicist.
If you watched Social Dilemma and are applauding all of those prodigal tech bros (mostly white dudes btw) for ‘finding a conscience’ and speaking up against Big Tech (after making millions of dollars building it), then you need to be listening to Dr. Gebru and the colleagues that are backing her.
Dr. Gebru’s account has been supported by many people on the Google Ethical Artificial Intelligence team. Dr. Gebru’s work continues to be lauded by the majority of her colleagues in academia. That AI team has bravely stood their ground and put their own jobs on the line to defend Dr. Gebru with a public letter.
I signed it in support of Dr. Gebru and I hope you do too:
Other news this week:
Florida raided the house of a state data scientist in Florida, Rebekah Jones, who spoke up when Florida was under reporting COVID cases to make its state look better:
Former Tesla automotive engineer Cristina Balan is preparing to go to court after she was fired for raising safety concerns:
Some WSJ columnist told Dr. Jill Biden that she shouldn’t use the title she not only earned but continues to use as a teacher:
Former Pinterest COO, Françoise Brougher, settled a gender discrimination lawsuit 6 months after getting fired. Her story is at:
Importantly, read this thread about why Ms. Brougher as a white woman might have been able to assemble a case when her Black women colleagues were denied , even though reporting egregious behavior.
And honestly probably so many other women and especially women of color who got dismissed, gaslit , minimized or denied, but that the media or companies aren’t even amplifying.
#believewomen especially #BelieveBlackWomen — they are the moral compass of their families, of their communities and of this country.
-Nicki (B.S Illinois Engineering, M.Ed Harvard GSE — not that it matters, but feeling extra salty about mediocre white dudes pretending that women’s — and especially women of color’s intellect, ideas, and truths are less than or shouldn’t be highlighted or celebrated — and angry that more white women internally aren’t supporting Dr. Gebru when they KNOW and have experienced this.)
