Google revamps AI teams in wake of researcher’s departure

Google restructured its responsible artificial intelligence efforts to centralize teams under a single executive, Marian Croak, a move by the internet giant to stabilize groups working on ethics research and products after months of chaos.

Croak, a vice president of engineering, will be the Lead for the Responsible AI Research and Engineering Center of Expertise, she said in a YouTube video announcing her appointment Thursday. The Alphabet Inc. unit has sought to defuse employee rancor stemming from the acrimonious departure of a prominent Black researcher, Timnit Gebru. Croak, a Black Google executive who is currently focused on site-reliability matters, will report to Jeff Dean, the senior vice president of Google AI.

Croak acknowledged in the video that there’s a lot of “dissension” in the ethical AI realm right now, with researchers disagreeing on principles.