Google fired Mitchell, a lead investigator, in February after a controversy.
New York:
Google confirmed on Tuesday that a leader of its artificial intelligence team has resigned after the controversial resignation of two colleagues.
The internet giant declined to comment further on the resignation of Samy Bengio, who worked at Google for about four years and specializes in machine learning.
“As I look forward to my next challenge, there is no doubt that leaving this great team is very difficult,” Bengio wrote in a corporate email first quoted by Bloomberg.
Bengio was not referring to Timnit Gebru or Margaret Mitchell, two former members of the ethical artificial intelligence team.
Google fired Mitchell, a lead investigator, in February following controversy last year over the dismissal by the technology giant of Gebru, an outspoken advocate of diversity.
Bengio expressed his solidarity with Gebru in a message shared on Facebook that remained on Tuesday.
“I am and always will 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 actions to raise the voices of the silenced people,” Bengio said. Use at the mail.
Mitchell had downloaded and shared corporate documents, according to a statement from Google earlier this year to Axios, which reported that it was an attempt to demonstrate discrimination 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 fired Gebru.
“It is sad to see this happening with the only 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 providing an inclusive environment.
“But once you ‘see’ sexism and racism, it becomes untenable to stay with an organization attached to it,” Mitchell said in a tweet, predicting that more members of her former team would retire from Google.
“There is a lot of interest in responsible / ethical AI outside of Google, so people we’ve worked with have many options.”
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV contributors and was published from a syndicated feed.)