Though at least two Google engineers had earlier resigned to
protest the dismissal of artificial intelligence (AI) researcher Timnit Gebru,
Bengio is the highest-profile employee yet to depart. Google confirmed Bengio’s
resignation and his email. Bengio did not respond to requests for comment.
Bloomberg earlier reported the news.
A distinguished scientist at Google, Bengio spent about 14
years at the company and was among its first employees involved in a decade-old
project known as Google Brain that advanced algorithms crucial to the
functioning of various modern AI systems.
Andrew Ng, an early Brain member who now runs software
startup Landing AI, said Bengio “has been instrumental to moving forward AI
technology and ethics.” Another founding member, Jeff Dean, now oversees
Google’s thousands of researchers.Google Brain researcher Sara Hooker in a
tweet described Bengio’s departure as “a huge loss for Google.”
In the internal email Bengio had sent, he said he decided to
leave Google to pursue “other exciting opportunities” and that his last day
would be April 28.Google fired staff scientist Margaret Mitchell in February
after alleging she transferred electronic files out of the company.
It fired fellow researcher Gebru in December after she
threatened to quit rather than retract a paper.Mitchell has said she tried “to
raise concerns about race and gender inequity, and speak up about Google’s
problematic firing of Dr. Gebru.”
Gebru has said the company wanted to suppress her criticism
of its products and its efforts to increase workforce diversity. Google has
said it accepted her offer to resign. Bengio had defended the pair, who co-led
a team of about a dozen people researching ethical issues related to AI
software.
In December, Bengio wrote on Facebook that he was stunned
that Gebru, whom he was managing, was removed from the company without him
being consulted. Though he did not mention the firings in his farewell note,
they influenced his decision to resign, people familiar with the matter said,
speaking on condition of anonymity.
Bengio wrote in the email, “I learned so much with all of
you, in terms of machine learning research of course, but also on how difficult
yet important it is to organize a large team of researchers so as to promote
long term ambitious research, exploration, rigor, diversity and inclusion.”
Nicolas Le Roux, a Google Brain researcher, told Reuters that Bengio had
devoted himself to making the research organisation more inclusive and “created
a space where everyone felt welcome.”
Google recently moved oversight of the AI ethics team from
Bengio to vice president Marian Croak. In February, Croak told staff at a town
hall that Google wanted management that could focus fully on that area, saying
it had just been a small part of what Bengio was supporting. Google also
pledged several changes at the town hall aiming to regain researchers’ trust,
Reuters previously reported.
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