Google’s AI board dissolved within a week of birth
San Francisco: Following a week of controversies surrounding its composition, Google’s external advisory board designed to monitor its use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been dissolved after just one week of its formation.
The AI ethics board, called the Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC), included a number of prominent academics.
While over 2,300 Google employees signed a petition to remove board member Kay Coles James over her controversial comments against the LGBTQ and immigrant communities in the past, the inclusion of drone company CEO Dyan Gibbens re-opened old divisions in the company over the use of Google AI in military applications.
“It has become clear that in the current environment, ATEAC can’t function as we wanted. So we’re ending the council and going back to the drawing board,” Vox quoted a Google spokesperson as saying on Thursday.
Earlier on Saturday, a board member and Carnegie Mellon Professor Alessandro Acquisti stepped down from ATEAC tweeting that the forum was not right for him.
The committee was formed following criticism about Google’s involvement in a US military’s drone project that required Google technologies for AI-enabled weaponry and spy systems.
Founded with eight members to guide “responsible development of AI” at Google, the short-lived ATEAC was put together to focus on whether to work on military applications of AI and more.
The panel was supposed to add outside perspectives to ongoing AI ethics work by Google.
