---
title: "Google Ousts Top AI Ethicist"
description: "On Wednesday, Google suddenly accepted the resignation of a prominent AI ethicist who had spoken out about diversity and censorship within the company."
date: "2020-12-03"
modified: "2020-12-03"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-ousts-ai-ethicist"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
  - "Google"
tags:
  - "ai"
  - "ai ethics"
  - "Google"
  - "the digest"
---

# Google Ousts Top AI Ethicist

![On Wednesday, Google fired a prominent AI ethicist at the company who had spoken out about diversity and censorship within the company.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/google-fires-top-ai-ethicist.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Censorship Allegations

One of Google's top AI ethicists says she's out at the company — in part, she says, because the tech giant was censoring her research.

*OneZero* [reports that](<https://onezero.medium.com/amp/p/f602cdb7fe89>) Timnit Gebru, who had been the technical co-lead of Google's Ethical Artificial Intelligence Team, says her employment was abruptly cut off — along with her access to her company email address — after a tense email exchange.

Gebru is known for influential research into racial bias in AI algorithms. Most recently, she's been working at Google in a research position, exploring ethical implications of AI technologies.

## Story So Far

But it now sounds like her experience at the search giant has been fraught. In an email [obtained by Casey Newton's new publication *Platformer*](<https://www.platformer.news/p/the-withering-email-that-got-an-ethical>), Gebru told an internal listserv about a saga in which she had circulated a new research paper coauthored with a number of other Google employees — its precise topic remains unclear, though it appears to have to do with language models — to a large group of research peers.

Then, she wrote in the email, she was surprised when her "manager’s manager" told her that she needed to retract the paper.

According to a second email, also obtained by *Platformer* and sent by head of Google research Jeff Dean, Gebru then said that she would resign unless a list of conditions were met. In his email, Dean also pushed back against elements of Gebru's narrative. For instance, he said that she only gave internal Google reviewers one day to read the paper, instead of the customary two weeks.

Gebru's manager, she [said on Twitter](<https://onezero.medium.com/amp/p/f602cdb7fe89>), subsequently told her that the company couldn't meet her conditions — and would have to let her go immediately. Google instantly cut off access to her company email account, Gebru told *OneZero.*

Several of Gebru's recent tweets suggest that she's seeking legal recourse. In [one message](<https://twitter.com/timnitGebru/status/1333613035945144323>) last Monday — before her termination — she inquired about legal protections for whistleblowers among AI researchers. And on Wednesday, she [tweeted that](<https://twitter.com/timnitGebru/status/1334357482576236544>) she was looking for legal representation.

https://twitter.com/timnitGebru/status/1334357482576236544

**READ MORE:** [Noted A.I. Ethicist Timnit Gebru Let Go From Google Following Tense Email Exchange](<https://onezero.medium.com/amp/p/f602cdb7fe89>) \[*OneZero*\]

**More on Google:** *[Three Signs Google Is Turning to the Dark Side](<https://futurism.com/google-dont-be-evil>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)