A prominent artificial-intelligence researcher says she was fired by Google after she refused to retract a research paper and complained about the company in an email to colleagues. The researcher, Timnit Gebru, was the co-head of Google’s Ethical Artificial Intelligence team. Gebru alleges that her departure was precipitated by an email she sent last week which she criticized her superiors and discussed the failings of diversity and inclusion efforts in the tech industry. Google Head of AI Jeff Dean, in an internal email, informed staff that an internal team determined that Gebru’s most recent AI research was insufficiently rigorous. Dean also characterizes Gebru's departure as a resignation.
See "Prominent AI Researcher Fired by Google After Research Dispute", Rob Copeland, The Wall Street Journal , December 3, 2020