A Scandal at Google and the Future of AI

Earlier this month, Timnit Gebru, the co-leader of a team of researchers at Google specializing in the ethical implications of artificial intelligence, was unceremoniously ousted from her position. Some of the circumstances that led to her departure are disputed, but Gebru—a Black woman in a field that is overwhelmingly white and male—claims she was forced out for drawing unwelcome attention to the lack of diversity in Google’s workforce. She also claims she was “silenced” for her refusal to retract a paper that she had co-authored on ethical problems associated with certain types of AI models that are central to Google’s business.

The episode has sparked a fierce backlash across Silicon Valley and beyond, including among current and former Google employees. This week on Trend Lines, WPR’s Elliot Waldman is joined by Karen Hao, the senior AI reporter for MIT Technology Review, to discuss the reaction to Gebru’s dismissal and the troubling issues she has raised around the ethical implications of recent advances in AI. To learn more about this topic, check out Karen’s weekly newsletter, The Algorithm, and the podcast she co-produces, In Machines We Trust.

Relevant Articles on WPR:

It Will Take More Than an Antitrust Case to Fix the Problems of Big Tech

The Troubling Rise of Facial Recognition Technology in Democracies

Are Governments Sacrificing Privacy to Fight the Coronavirus Pandemic?

Can New Norms of Behavior Extend the Rules-Based Order Into Cyberspace?

Trend Lines is produced and edited by Peter Dörrie, a freelance journalist and analyst focusing on security and resource politics in Africa. You can follow him on Twitter at @peterdoerrie.

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