Google shuts down AI ethics council after controversy over members
https://www.cnet.com/news/google-shuts-down-its-newly-formed-ai-ethics-council/
Some accused one member, Heritage Foundation President Kay Cole James, of being "anti-trans, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-immigrant." On Monday, a group of employees called Googlers Against Transphobia and Hate published a petition demanding James be removed from the group. More than 2,000 Googlers have signed it. Another member, Alessandro Acquisti, a behavioral economist and privacy researcher, had already dropped out of the group.
"It's become clear that in the current environment, ATEAC can't function as we wanted," a Google spokesperson said in a statement. "So we're ending the council and going back to the drawing board. We'll continue to be responsible in our work on the important issues that AI raises, and will find different ways of getting outside opinions on these topics."