Google scraps AI ethics board after just a week amid controversy over board member
Google has scrapped its AI ethics board only a week after forming it following a controversy over its choice of board members.
The tech giant last week unveiled its newly-formed Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC) to oversee the ethical development and use of its AI research and products.
Read more: Here's how much Google UK employees earned in 2018
But the move sparked criticism as Google employees hit out at the appointment of Kay Coles James, president of US think tank The Heritage Foundation.
More than two thousand staff members called for James to be removed from the ethics board due to her stance on trans and LGBT people and immigration.
Google has now abandoned plans for the committee, saying it was “going back to the drawing board”.
The capitulation, first reported by Vox, came after an embarrassing week for Google as members of the nascent ethics board waded into the public spat.
Alessandro Acquisti, a behavioural economist and privacy researcher, wrote on Twitter that he had turned down Google’s offer of a place on the board.
Oxford philosopher Luciano Floridi took to Facebook to say he had accepted the invitation, but said the decision to appoint James was a “grave error”.
Meanwhile, another board member, Joanna Bryson, defended James, saying: “Believe it or not, I know worse about other people”.
Google’s decision to ditch the board will come as a blow to campaigners concerned about how tech firms are using AI, with the potential use of the technology in warfare sparking particular controversy.
Read more: BBC removes podcasts from rival Google service
But the company has insisted the move does not mark the end of its efforts to monitor the responsible development of AI.
“We’ll continue to be responsible in our work on the important issues that AI raises, and will find different ways of getting outside opinions on these topics,” a Google spokesperson said.