Following resignations from the board and a petition with over 2,300 signatures from Google employees, the ATEAC (Advanced Technology External Advisory Council) has been cancelled by Google. The primary source of complaint appears to be the appointment of Kay Cole James, President of The Heritage Foundation. Additionally, there were some rather big flaws to Google’s approach from the outset:
- ATEAC would only have met quarterly, not allowing nearly enough time to input to the development process (meaning it was probably conceived as a checklist-style, stamp of approval mechanism, rather than as an active advisor).
- The board positions were unpaid.
- It would have been toothless, with no real power to implement its recommendations.
The author of another Vox article makes these points, concluding that this was an example of AI marketing, not AI ethics. Read more on this here.
Read the main article here.
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