Angela Lang/CNET
Google has locked the corporate account of artificial intelligence researcher Margaret Mitchell, the leader of its Ethical AI unit. Mitchell had criticized the search giant after the controversial departure of another prominent AI researcher at the company, Timnit Gebru.
Mitchell had been using automated software to go through her old messages to find examples of discriminatory treatment toward Gebru, according to Axios, which first reported the news, late Tuesday.
Last month, Gebru, who co-led Google’s Ethical AI group and is one of the only Black women in the field, said she was fired over a research paper that calls out risks for bias in AI — including in systems used by Google’s search engine. Gebru also emailed a group of Google employees, criticizing the company’s diversity and equity programs.
Google said it’s investigating the situation involving Mitchell.
“Our security systems automatically lock an employee’s corporate account when they detect that the account is at risk of compromise due to credential problems or when an automated rule involving the handling of sensitive data has been triggered,” a spokesman said in a statement. “In this instance, yesterday our systems detected that an account had exfiltrated thousands of files and shared them with multiple external accounts.”
Mitchell didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Gebru’s exit has caused widespread outrage among Google’s rank-and-file workforce and around the broader tech industry. Nearly 2,700 Googlers have signed an open letter in support of Gebru. Members of Gebru’s former team at Google also sent a letter to CEO Sundar Pichai demanding she be reinstated.
