Google parts with top AI researcher after blocking paper, faces blowback

Enlarge / Former Google AI Research Scientist Timnit Gebru speaks onstage during Day 3 of TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2018 at Moscone Center on September 7, 2018 in San Francisco, California. (credit: Kimberly White | Getty Images)

Google struggled on Thursday to limit the fallout from the departure of a top artificial intelligence researcher after the Internet group blocked the publication of a paper on an important AI ethics issue.

Timnit Gebru, who had been co-head of AI ethics at Google, said on Twitter that she had been fired after the paper was rejected.

Jeff Dean, Google's head of AI, defended the decision in an internal email to staff on Thursday, saying the paper didn't meet our bar for publication." He also described Dr. Gebru's departure as a resignation in response to Google's refusal to concede to unspecified conditions she had set to stay at the company.

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