Google AI DeepMind's high ideals are tainted?
Google’s groundbreaking DeepMind unit makes a pledge on its website to “benefit humanity” through research into artificial intelligence. It may need to solve a more practical problem first: allowing staff to speak freely about alleged mistreatment in the workplace.
An open letter published last week by a former employee criticized DeepMind for stopping her from speaking to colleagues and managers soon after she started being harassed by a fellow employee. The senior colleague subjected her to sexual and behavioral harassment for several months, she said, and she claimed it took DeepMind nearly a year to resolve her case.
The complaints have been an embarrassment for DeepMind, and the company says it erred in trying to keep its employee from speaking about her treatment. But it’s clear that DeepMind has a lot of work to do to confront a broader culture of secrecy that led some at the organization to attempt to suppress grievances rather than work quickly to address them.
No matter how much workplace training companies conduct with their staff, some people will behave badly. Sexual harassment is experienced by close to a third of U.S. and U.K. workers.(2) Where a firm really shows it has a handle on the problem is in how it deals with complaints. That is where Google’s DeepMind seems to have fallen short.
The former DeepMind employee wrote that she was threatened with disciplinary action if she spoke about her complaint with her manager or other colleagues. And the process of the company’s sending her notes and responding to her allegations took several months, during which time the person she reported was promoted and received a company award. DeepMind said in a statement that while it “could have communicated better
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