Marian Croak, one of Google’s few Black executives, has been appointed to supervise responsible research on Artificial Intelligence (AI). This comes after weeks of unrest over the firing of a prominent Black scientist- Timnit Gebru. Timnit Gebru was the Ethical AI co-lead and she claimed to have been fired abruptly for contesting company orders. This led to an internal kerfuffle between staff and management, with staff expressing concern that Gebru’s critiques of Google was met with unfair consequences. Marian Croak happens to be part of the executives acting as mediator between the employees and the management, trying to broker a way forward. In a Thursday meeting with employees, Croak mentioned that she respected Timnit Gebru and that she considered what happened to her as rather unfortunate. She expressed disagreement in the fields of research now under her management, stating in a video on Google’s blog that: “There’s quite a lot of conflict right now within the field, and it can be polarizing at times, and what I’d like to do is just have people have the conversation in a more diplomatic way.”
Alex Hanna, a Google employee, via Twitter deemed Croak’s appointment as ‘a betrayal’, claiming that it did not see to the demands of the Ethical Artificial Intelligence team, and that it happened behind their back. Gebru, who seems to be the victim, expressed similar feelings. In a statement she said: “Marian is a highly accomplished trailblazing scientist that I had admired and even confided in. It’s incredibly hurtful to see her legitimizing what Jeff Dean and his subordinates have done to me and my team.”
Alphabet Inc’s Google confirmed that Marian croak, as the new overseer, will be in charge of ten teams, including a dozen of scientists studying the ethical considerations of automated technologies of Artificial Intelligence. Marian Croak who is also a Vice President of Engineering at Google, will report to Google Artificial Intelligence Chief Jeff Dean. Croak, will also manage teams carrying out research related to accessibility, social good and fairness in health algorithms.
Paul Balo is the founder of TechBooky and a highly skilled wireless communications professional with a strong background in cloud computing, offering extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing wireless communication systems.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
