"They Weren't Even Treating Me Like a Person": A Black Tech Ethicist on Leaving Google

Earlier this fall, A.I. ethicist Timnit Gebru submitted a paper for consideration at an academic conference about predictive language models: on their environmental cost, and how they could learn racist and sexist language and also spread misinformation. Since she was working for Google, the company first wanted to review the paper--which Gebru wrote with several of her colleagues--and sign off on it. She was then told by senior managers that the paper didn't meet Google's publication bar, and that she should retract it or remove the names of Google employees. Gebru wanted more clarity on why they wanted it retracted and said that if Google couldn't provide that information, she would resign. This kicked off a few days of wrangling and several intense emails--until a manager emailed Gebru's boss, saying they had accepted her resignation.