Google Scraps Artificial Intelligence Ethics Council After Employee Backlash
Google abruptly cancels its newly formed Advanced Technology External Advisory Council just one week after its announcement. The decision follows intense internal protests over the inclusion of a controversial conservative figure.
Google officially cancels its Advanced Technology External Advisory Council just one week after announcing the initiative. The tech giant creates the panel to provide diverse perspectives on complex challenges related to facial recognition and fairness in machine learning, but the project faces immediate and intense scrutiny.
Over 2,300 Google employees sign a petition demanding the removal of Kay Coles James, the president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, from the council. Workers criticize her as "vocally anti-trans, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-immigrant," which sparks a massive internal uproar and causes at least one selected professor to resign from the panel before it even holds its first meeting.
The controversy ultimately forces the company to abandon the project entirely. Google states that the current environment prevents the council from functioning as intended, prompting the company to end the initiative and return to the drawing board to figure out how to handle its complex artificial intelligence principles.