Discussion

• @timnitgebru Timnit Gebru on x

  I was fired by @JeffDean for my email to Brain women and Allies. My corp account has been cutoff. So I've been immediately fired :-)

• @caseynewton Casey Newton on x

  New @platformer: here's the email that Google ethical AI researcher @timnitGebru says got her fired from Google https://www.platformer.news/ ... https://twitter.com/...

• @drewharwell Drew Harwell on x

  New from @nitashatiku and me: Google's star AI ethics researcher @timnitGebru says she was fired after sending a critical email. Highly regarded, and one of few Black women in a senior AI role, she had told coworkers she felt “constantly dehumanized” https://www.washingtonpost.co…

• @math_rachel Rachel Thomas on x

  I have long admired @timnitGebru for her brilliance, moral courage, clear voice in speaking up for what is right, & influential scholarship. It is truly terrible that Google would do this. In this thread, I want to share some of Timnit's work I love https://twitter.com/...

• @zittrain Jonathan Zittrain on x

  Timnit Gebru's work on AI bias is necessary and pathbreaking. The prospect that she'd simply be instructed by her employer to withdraw her academic work-in-progress — with no discussion — implicates all the church/state issues of corporations hosting academic research units. http…

• @juliacarriew Julia Carrie Wong on x

  Companies like Google and FB have hired huge numbers of PhDs who might otherwise be in the academy. Hard to see how this kind of treatment doesn't give potential recruits serious pause about what they'd be getting themselves into. https://twitter.com/...

• @timnitgebru Timnit Gebru on x

  Let me be very careful since I know what I'm dealing with and they can use everything I say against me. https://twitter.com/...

• @ram_ssk Ram Shankar on x

  So @GoogleAI policy says “Intellectual freedom is an essential ingredient in research progress” Bone chilling reporting @dinabass on @timnitGebru firing shows this policy, is but pablum All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten @JeffDean hands https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @ibjiyongi @ibjiyongi on x

  Google fired their head of ethical AI for trying to be ethical https://twitter.com/...

• @lizjosullivan @lizjosullivan on x

  Google should just change its motto to “Be evil” already. Absolutely astonished that they would be SO STUPID to let @timnitGebru slip away. Their loss, obviously, but my ❤️ goes out to her and to her team dealing with the censorship and gaslighting right now. #ISupportTimnit http…

• @drewharwell Drew Harwell on x

  Great @math_rachel thread on @timnitGebru's work: “Assume that everyone here has something great to contribute” https://twitter.com/...

• @timnitgebru Timnit Gebru on x

  EXACTLY. I was just saying. It is called brain women and ALLIES. And the allies were like hell naw get out of here. And I was told so many people were responding to it and I didn't even know cause I didn't have access by then. Its crazy. https://twitter.com/...

• @hughlangley Hugh Langley on x

  Last night, @timnitGebru, co-lead of Google's Ethical AI team, said she was fired over an email she sent to one of Google's research groups. The email was related to an as yet unpublished research paper on the potential harms of language models https://www.businessinsider.com/ ..…

• @itsafronomics Anna Gifty on x

  Let me tell how bad this is: Dr. @timnitGebru is probably one of THE MOST prominent Black women in AI and in SilIcon Valley. The same Silicon Valley where Black women make up less than 0.5% of technology leadership and workforce. This is worse than bad. https://www.bloomberg.com/…

• @nitashatiku Nitasha Tiku on x

  There's much to say & learn still about Google firing a pioneer like @timnitGebru, who gave its AI ethics credibility you just can't replicate. But it's worth focusing for a min on the fact that the email she sent was to an ERG for women and allies in AI https://www.washingtonpos…

• @sifill_ldf Sherrilyn Ifill on x

  This is absolutely infuriating. I am a huge fan and supporter of the work and uncompromising voice of @timnitGebru. I have learned so much from her about AI bias. What a disaster. https://twitter.com/...

• @juliacarriew Julia Carrie Wong on x

  So Google gave Andy Rubin $90m and a hero's farewell for credible allegations of sexual misconduct, but a prominent AI researcher is unceremoniously fired for a somewhat critical email expressing frustration with problems Google has admitted it has? https://www.platformer.news/ .…

• @mmitchell_ai MMitchell on x

  Today dawns a new horrible life-changing loss in a year of horrible life-changing losses. I can't well articulate the pain of losing @timnitGebru as my co-lead. I've been able to excel because of her—like so many others. I'm mostly in shock. What should I be doing right now?

• @azeem Azeem Azhar on x

  The ⁦@timnitGebru⁩ story is important. We are building the architecture for a new age, encoded by software and digital infrastructure. That will be built by organisations whose internal culture matters. Google needs to speak openly about this. https://www.businessinsider.com/ ...

• @_alialkhatib Ali Alkhatib on x

  i thought i imagined the worst but it can always get worse, huh? she's 100% right. it's negligent bordering on malicious to recruit Black people into the environments *that we create and reinforce* that are toxic & dangerous, but we never ever talk about it. i'm so fucking mad ht…

• @drewharwell Drew Harwell on x

  @nitashatiku @timnitGebru Hard to overstate Gebru's influence - both for the AI field and for researchers of color who saw her as a Silicon Valley inspiration. Her research (like https://gendershades.org/) shaped global understanding of algorithmic bias and facial recognition's r…

• @juliasilge Julia Silge on x

  Definitely interested 👀 in the upcoming research paper on ethical issues surrounding large language models that apparently precipitated all this: https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @juliaxgulia Julia Kaganskiy on x

  Once again tech companies demonstrate that their AI & Ethics programs exist primarily as a PR front so they can avoid actually doing the work of developing ethical standards and practices. https://twitter.com/...

• @histoftech Mar Hicks on x

  In 2019 Google dissolved its AI ethics board rather than remove a xenophobic & transphobic member. Now they've fired an AI expert who helped make their products less racist & sexist, seemingly for doing her job well. This corporation keeps telling us who they are. Believe them. h…

• @histoftech Mar Hicks on x

  Timnit Gebru, technical co-lead of Google's ethical AI team, & leader in the field of AI ethics, was just fired by google for trying to do her job. “She is widely respected for her work examining bias in AI & is a rare senior Black woman in the field.” https://www.businessinsider…

• @shanselman Scott Hanselman on x

  Read and learn about @timnitGebru and the groundbreaking work she did in AI Ethics. It's unreal that she was fired in the middle of a disagreement about a paper. She asks hard questions and uses AI to shine a light on, and life up others. She should be supported. https://twitter.…

• @erikashimizu Aerica Shimizu Banks on x

  Read this in full. Every accomplished Black woman I know, myself included, could have written an email like this. If this happens to someone as brilliant and influential as Timnit, what hope is there for the rest of us? #ISupportTimnit #BelieveBlackWomen https://twitter.com/...

• @kateconger O...K on x

  “This shows how some large tech companies only support ethics and fairness and other A.I.-for-social-good-causes as long as their positive PR impact outweighs the extra scrutiny they bring.” https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @nitashatiku Nitasha Tiku on x

  as you can see from the outpouring to Timnit's email & as I've heard from many tech employees, this sentiment of feeling “dehumanized” and demoralized and your career/progress penalized is common if you fight for diversity long enough email here: https://www.platformer.news/ ...

• @uche_blackstock Uch Blackstock, Md on x

  Literally, so many of us have been in this situation. Replace and insert another discipline or industry. It's practically predictable. Black person speaks out against racism. Black person gets pressured to leave, or, worse, is fired. https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @ssmith_calabor Steve Smith on x

  Just another reminder that when it comes to workers' rights, there's absolutely nothing innovative about Big Tech. They're using the same playbook to exploit and silence dissent that corporations have used for well over a century https://twitter.com/...

• @josheidelson Josh Eidelson on x

  “She has also been an outspoken critic of the lack of diversity & unequal treatment of Black workers at tech companies, particularly...Google, & said she believed her dismissal was meant to send a message to the rest of Google's employees not to speak up” https://www.bloomberg.co…

• @zenalbatross @zenalbatross on x

  Google just fired one of its only Black woman research scientists and her colleagues in the A.I. ethics field are quite understandably very angry about it #ISupportTimnit https://www.vice.com/...

• @histoftech Mar Hicks on x

  The company that dissolved its ethics board for being unethical has now fired a leading researcher they employed to ensure their products were not racist and sexist🙃🙃🙃 This corporation keeps telling us who they are. Believe them. https://twitter.com/...

• @ericajoy Erica Joy on x

  there are absolutely no lies detected in @timnitGebru's email. not one. https://www.platformer.news/ ...

• @harrymccracken Harry McCracken on x

  Seems like an emotionally aware company would not respond to an email like this by firing its author. https://twitter.com/...

• @igorbrigadir Igor Brigadir on x

  On a related note: I think one of the major causes of burnout is when work you do doesn't seem to have any real outcome or effect. You either keep screaming into the void, or go insane trying to change things. Either way, you burn yourself out. https://twitter.com/...

• @joewestby Joe Westby on x

  Wow it was already bad that Google fired Timnit Gebru.... its even worse they literally fired her for protesting about *silencing marginalized voices*. WTAF https://twitter.com/...

• @ekp Ellen K. Pao on x

  Email from ethics and AI leader @timnitGebru details problems at Google: zero accountability, silencing, gaslighting, and dehumanization. Instead of learning from it, Google fired her for it https://twitter.com/...

• @blackamazon @blackamazon on x

  Or that tech is continuing a long tradition of pushing out Black women in broad daylight https://twitter.com/...

• @bcmerchant Brian Merchant on x

  At a moment when dangerous machine learning biases are creeping into more and more aspects of our lives I, for one, think it's a pretty good sign that Google, one of the world's largest purveyors of the technology, keeps pushing out its top AI ethicists https://onezero.medium.com…

• @blackamazon @blackamazon on x

  The person who fired her was a woman . So let's be clear there https://twitter.com/...

• @lizzieohreally Lizzie O'Leary on x

  a big deal in AI land https://onezero.medium.com/...

• @libshipwreck Librarianshipwreck on x

  Nothing says Google is genuinely committed to ethics in AI quite like Google firing the co-lead of its Ethical Artificial Intelligence Team... https://twitter.com/...

• @latoyapeterson Latoya Peterson on x

  For now. Your work and your rep are bigger than any place you may work or any one org. Grieve, rage, but at the end this you are still you. To quote Shonda, you are the candy. https://twitter.com/...

• @ibjiyongi @ibjiyongi on x

  And they're trying to act like this Black woman quit so she can't collect unemployment either. Whewwww. https://twitter.com/...

• @recursecenter @recursecenter on x

  We have known Timnit for over eight years. She is a deeply ethical, thoughtful, accomplished person, and a pioneer in her field. Google's behavior here is repugnant: https://twitter.com/...

• @tri_becca90 Rebecca Rivers on x

  This wasn't a resignation, @Google fired @timnitGebru in an extremely cruel way. This is Google's new motto. “And remember... don't worry about being evil, and if you see something that you think isn't right - shut up or we will torch your career!” https://twitter.com/...

• @lizthegrey Liz Fong-Jones on x

  Yup. pure tone policing. #ISupportTimnit #BelieveBlackWomen https://www.platformer.news/ ...

• @lizthegrey Liz Fong-Jones on x

  And now we have the actual email. This is tone policing, this is not a legitimate “managers shouldn't be sending emails like this”... unless you mean to say that there shouldn't be Black managers, women who are managers, etc. https://www.platformer.news/ ...

• @saraashleyo Sara Ashley O'Brien on x

  “your life gets worse when you start advocating for underrepresented people” https://twitter.com/...

• @richardjnieva Richard Nieva on x

  No comment yet from Google about its prominent AI ethicist saying last night that she was fired over an email https://twitter.com/...

• @mhbergen Mark Bergen on x

  “People don't know the extent of the issues that exist because you can't talk about them, and the moment you do, you're the problem” ~ @timnitGebru in August. https://www.bloomberg.com/... No response from Google to the news last night. If you have more to say, please reach out.

• @daveyalba Davey Alba on x

  @timnitGebru This is horrendous; I'm so sorry. People should know about this. It's also depressingly consistent with Google's labor practices, esp considering the news we saw today. https://www.google.com/...

• @willoremus Will Oremus on x

  A noted A.I. ethicist was abruptly let go from Google last night, after previously threatening privately to resign. My story: https://onezero.medium.com/...

• @dinabass Dina Bass on x

  I spoke with @timnitGebru on what happened leading up to her removal from Google, including the research paper that started the whole issue and what she asked Google to do in her email suggesting she'd resign otherwise: https://www.bloomberg.com/... with @mhbergen and @sbanjo