裁员风波升级，谷歌内部再次上演“工人起义”
谷歌内部员工冲突仍在发酵。近期，该公司一批AI研究人员联名上交请愿书要求出台相应新政策并更换管理层。
请愿书的矛盾核心依然聚焦于高级AI伦理研究员提姆尼特•格布鲁被迫离职一事。大量研究部门员工对谷歌的处理方式表示抗议，并要求将现任副总裁梅根•卡奇利亚剔出该部门汇报链。据彭博社曝光的请愿书副本，这些员工在申诉中直截了当地指出：“我们对副总裁的领导能力失去了信任。”
据格布鲁本人说法，谷歌高层拒绝发表她与他人合著的一篇AI研究论文，因为该论文触犯到了谷歌搜索引擎的部分利益，后来她便因不愿妥协而被解雇。谷歌首席执行官桑达尔•皮查伊在事后向员工发表声明称，谷歌已对此案介入调查。
格布鲁的同事、谷歌AI研究团队代表亚历克斯•汉纳于本周三向CEO皮查伊发邮件强调：“谷歌选择解雇一位核心AI研究员的做法是其目光短浅的表现，如果想要AI研究继续进行下去，如果想要它保持一个独立完整的合法性，我们需要迅速采取结构性转变。”
“谷歌必须停止这种短视的、只图眼前之利的行为，AI所引起的伦理研究不止针对谷歌自己，还针对谷歌的其他竞争对手，它赋有普遍意义。”其他员工在请愿书中补充道。
请愿书倡议谷歌以一个“更高的职位待遇”重聘格布鲁，还要求两位AI部门主管为其不正确态度向格布鲁致歉。研究部门员工普遍认为，谷歌应该就此发布一个支持学术诚信的公开承诺，并主动为管理层进行种族平等相关培训。
这是谷歌内部再一次上演的“工人起义”。在2018年，谷歌也曾遭受过数千名员工罢工事件，其中一部分人亦向谷歌提交了一份申诉清单，希望能在董事会安插一位员工代表。虽然谷歌在此后做了一些相应的调整与改变，但其中大部分矛盾仍是悬而未决。（财富中文网）
编译：陈怡轩
谷歌内部员工冲突仍在发酵。近期，该公司一批AI研究人员联名上交请愿书要求出台相应新政策并更换管理层。
请愿书的矛盾核心依然聚焦于高级AI伦理研究员提姆尼特•格布鲁被迫离职一事。大量研究部门员工对谷歌的处理方式表示抗议，并要求将现任副总裁梅根•卡奇利亚剔出该部门汇报链。据彭博社曝光的请愿书副本，这些员工在申诉中直截了当地指出：“我们对副总裁的领导能力失去了信任。”
据格布鲁本人说法，谷歌高层拒绝发表她与他人合著的一篇AI研究论文，因为该论文触犯到了谷歌搜索引擎的部分利益，后来她便因不愿妥协而被解雇。谷歌首席执行官桑达尔•皮查伊在事后向员工发表声明称，谷歌已对此案介入调查。
格布鲁的同事、谷歌AI研究团队代表亚历克斯•汉纳于本周三向CEO皮查伊发邮件强调：“谷歌选择解雇一位核心AI研究员的做法是其目光短浅的表现，如果想要AI研究继续进行下去，如果想要它保持一个独立完整的合法性，我们需要迅速采取结构性转变。”
“谷歌必须停止这种短视的、只图眼前之利的行为，AI所引起的伦理研究不止针对谷歌自己，还针对谷歌的其他竞争对手，它赋有普遍意义。”其他员工在请愿书中补充道。
请愿书倡议谷歌以一个“更高的职位待遇”重聘格布鲁，还要求两位AI部门主管为其不正确态度向格布鲁致歉。研究部门员工普遍认为，谷歌应该就此发布一个支持学术诚信的公开承诺，并主动为管理层进行种族平等相关培训。
这是谷歌内部再一次上演的“工人起义”。在2018年，谷歌也曾遭受过数千名员工罢工事件，其中一部分人亦向谷歌提交了一份申诉清单，希望能在董事会安插一位员工代表。虽然谷歌在此后做了一些相应的调整与改变，但其中大部分矛盾仍是悬而未决。（财富中文网）
编译：陈怡轩
A group of Google artificial intelligence researchers sent a sweeping list of demands to management calling for new policies and leadership changes, escalating a conflict at one of the company’s prized units.
The note centers on the departure of Google AI ethics researcher Timnit Gebru, which set off protests inside the company. Citing that situation, the employees called for a company vice president, Megan Kacholia, to no longer be part of their reporting chain. “We have lost trust in her as a leader,” the researchers wrote, according to a copy of the later obtained by Bloomberg.
Gebru has said she was fired after the company rejected a research paper she co-authored that questioned an AI technology at the heart of Google’s search engine. The company has said she resigned and Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai told staff he is investigating the incident.
It was sent Wednesday to officials including Pichai by employee Alex Hanna, who worked with Gebru, on behalf of Google’s Ethical AI team. “Google’s short-sighted decision to fire and retaliate against a core member of the Ethical AI team makes it clear that we need swift and structural changes if this work is to continue, and if the legitimacy of the field as a whole is to persevere,” the letter reads.
“This research must be able to contest the company’s short-term interests and immediate revenue agendas, as well as to investigate AI that is deployed by Google’s competitors with similar ethical motives,” the researchers added.、
The letter urges Google to offer Gebru the chance to return to the company “at a higher level” than the one she had before. The researchers also asked that Kacholia and Jeff Dean, the AI division chief, apologize to Gebru for their treatment of her. It also calls for the company to issue a public commitment to academic integrity and to establish racial literacy training for management.
The is the latest worker uprising at Google. In 2018, thousands of employees walked out and some of them sent the company a list of reform demands, including placing an employee representative on the board. While the company made some changes, such as no longer forcing employees to arbitrate workplace claims, the bulk of those demands remain unmet.
