One panellist quits, another decides to stay and listen
Over a thousand Google employees and members of the machine-learning community have signed a petition urging the ad giant to remove Kay Coles James, president of conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, from its external AI ethics board.
Last week, Google announced the launch of the Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC). The organisation is made up of non-Googlers, and was set up to ensure Google sticks to the AI principles it drafted following Project Maven – that whole killer drone debacle with the US military.
Project Maven was scrapped after the web search king faced a backlash from its own employees. Now, its workers have struck again, this time with another petition accusing James of being “anti-trans, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-immigrant.” It has amassed 1,072 signatures so far, the vast majority of people supporting the petition are Googlers, others include academics and tech workers in the AI community.
“In selecting James, Google is making clear that its version of ‘ethics’ values proximity to power over the well-being of trans people, other LGBTQ people, and immigrants. Such a position directly contravenes Google’s stated values,” according to the petition.
The petition pointed out a few of James’ tweets. One, referring to US President Donald Trump’s immigration stance, said: “We have a crisis at our border: thousands of illegal aliens, dangerous criminals, drug smugglers and sex traffickers crossing the border every day.” In another tweet, James seemed to refer to transgender women as biological men.
One academic listed as part of its inaugural council announced that he had already left the board last weekend. Alessandro Acquisti, a professor of information technology and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, said on Twitter:
It’s not clear if Acquisiti retracted his decision to join the board or if he turned Google’s request down.
