Google CEO says company will review AI scholar's abrupt exit

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has apologized for how a prominent artificial intelligence researcher's abrupt departure last week has “seeded doubts” in company.

Pichai told Google employees in a Wednesday memo obtained by Axios that tech company is beginning a review of circumstances leing up to Black computer scientist Timnit Gebru's exit and how Google could have “led a more respectful process.”

Gebru, a top scholar in field of AI ethics, said she was fired last week. Google has referred to it as a resignation.

Pichai's te doesn't call it eir a firing or a resignation but says "we need to accept responsibility for fact that a prominent Black, female leer with immense talent left Google unhappily."

dispute centered around Google's push to disassociate itself from a research paper Gebru co-authored examining societal dangers of an AI techlogy used by Google.

Gebru criticized Pichai's memo Wednesday on Twitter, saying she saw “ plans for accountability” in it and because it offered apology for what happened to her.

Thousands of people, many of m Google employees, have signed an open letter showing support for Gebru and accusing Google of “unprecedented research censorship,” racism and defensiveness.