Two Google engineers have quit over the treatment of Timnit Gebru, former co-lead of the ethical AI team. David Baker, an engineering director, said Gebru’s dismissal “extinguished” his desire to remain at the company. Vinesh Kannan, a software engineer, said he was leaving because Gebru and April Christina Curley, a diversity recruiter, were “wronged.” The news was first reported by Reuters.
“We cannot say we believe in making a more understanding, informed world, and then ignore how our products amplify biases,” Baker wrote in a farewell note to colleagues. “We cannot say we believe in diversity, and then ignore the conspicuous absence of many voices from within our walls.”
The departures point to an ongoing conflict between Google…
