Members of a prestigious research unit at Google have sent a letter to the company's chief
executive demanding that ousted artificial intelligence researcher Timnit Gebru be reinst
ated.Gebru, who studies the ethics of AI and was one of the only Black research scientists
at Google, says she was unexpectedly fired after a dispute over an academic paper and mon
ths of speaking out about the need for more women and people of color at the tech giant.In
a letter sent on Wednesday by members of Google's Ethical AI team to CEO Sundar Pichai, G
ebru's former colleagues ask that she be re-hired and promoted, among a host of other dema
nds, according to a copy of the note obtained by NPR that was first reported by Bloomberg.
"Offering Timnit her position back at a higher level would go a long way to help re-establ
ish trust and rebuild our team environment," reads the letter sent by Google employee Alex
Hanna on behalf of the Ethical AI team, which Gebru co-led before she was forced out. "Th
e removal of Timnit has had a demoralizing effect on the whole of our team."Since Gebru's
termination earlier this month, more than 2,600 Googlers have signed an open letter expres
sing dismay over the way Gebru exited the company and asking executives for a full explana
tion of what prompted her dismissal.In the letter from the AI team to Pichai, Gebru's form
er colleagues ask that Megan Kacholia, a vice president at Google Research who the researc
hers accuse of going around the team's direct supervisor to fire Gebru, be removed from th
eir reporting chain."We have lost confidence in Megan Kacholia," the researchers wrote, sa
ying Gebru's firing happened "without warning rather than engaging in dialogue."Google, wh
ich is owned by parent company Alphabet, Inc., did not respond to a request for comment.Go
ogle has previously maintained that Gebru resigned, though Gebru herself says she never vo
luntary agreed to leave the company. In a company email after the episode, Pichai acknowle
dged that the incident "seeded doubts and led some in our community to question their plac
e at Google." He committed to rebuilding employees' trust and supporting independent resea
rch.Yet in their letter to him on Wednesday, the researchers were doubtful their work coul
d resume in the absence of major overhauls inside the company.Gebru helped establish Black
in AI, a group that supports Black researchers in the field of artificial intelligence. S
he also was the co-author of pioneering research into facial recognition technology that d
emonstrated how people of color and women are misidentified far more often than white face
s. The study helped convince IBM, Amazon and Microsoft to stop selling the technology to l
aw enforcement.At Google, Gebru's former team wrote in the Wednesday letter that studying
ways to reduce the harm of AI on marginalized groups is key to their mission.And they worr
ied that Google's "short-term interests and immediate revenue agendas" could stand in the
way of investigating sensitive areas of study.Last month, Google abruptly asked Gebru to r
etract a research paper focused on the potential biases baked into an AI system that attem
pts to mimic human speech. The technology helps power Google's search engine. Google claim
s the paper did not meet its bar for publication and that Gebru did not follow the company
's internal review protocol.However, Gebru and her supporters counter that she was being t
argeted because of how outspoken she was about diversity issues, a theme that was undersco
red in the letter."Google's short-sighted decision to fire and retaliate against a core me
mber of the Ethical AI Team makes it clear that we need swift and structural changes if th
is work is to continue, and if the legitimacy of the field as a while is to persevere."The
letter says Google's top brass have committed to advancing diversity, equity and inclusio
n among its research units, but unless more concrete and immediate action is taken, those
promises are "virtue signaling; they are damaging, evasive, defensive and demonstrate lead
ership's inability to understand how our organization is part of the problem," according t
o the letter.The AI team members also calls for Google's leadership to go through racial l
iteracy training, arguing that "the toxicity" toward people of color on Google's research
team "needs to stop."They say Jeff Dean, senior vice president of Google Research, and oth
er executives involved in Gebru's firing need to be held accountable. They want Dean to is
sue an apology to Gebru. They also ask that Google management stop referring to her ouster
as a resignation, saying such "gaslighting" has caused harm to Gebru and the Black commun
ity at Google.Google has a history of striking back against employees who agitate internal
ly for change. Organizers of the worldwide walkouts at Google in 2018 over sexual harassme
nt and other issues were fired by the company. And more recently, the National Labor Relat
ion Board accused Google of illegally firing workers who were involved in union organizing
.This time, however, the researchers are pleading with Google not to demote, fire or other
wise punish anyone involved in supporting Gebru."We know from Google's past retaliation th
at they often proceed to harm and marginalize workers without outright firing them, especi
ally those who have advocated for their colleagues," the researchers wrote to Pichai.