Google cancels controversial A.I. ethics panel
Google has nixed its panel for discussing AI issues, one week after it was announced.
The sudden shift is a sign of change coming after employees at technology companies speaking out against actions their employers are taking.  was first to report on the move on Thursday.
Google named the constituents of its Advanced Technology External Advisory Council on March 26. "This group will consider some of Googles most complex challenges that arise under our AI Principles, like facial recognition and fairness in machine learning, providing diverse perspectives to inform our work," Googles senior vice president of global affairs, Kent Walker, said in a .
Walker said that the group would meet four times this year and that it would issue a report on the conversations.
Employees and outsiders quickly questioned the makeup of the board. Specifically, some people wondered why Kay Coles James, president of the Heritage Foundation, was included on the council.
More than 2,300 Google employees signed  calling for Google to take Coles James off the council. The petition described her as "vocally anti trans, anti LGBTQ, and anti immigrant."
On March 30 Alessandro Acquisti, professor of information technology and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University and one of the people Google selected for the panel, announced that he had chosen not to participate.
And on Wednesday, Luciano Floridi, professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information at the University of Oxford and another person Google chose for the council, said that while he did not agree with the views of Coles James and the Heritage Foundation, he also felt he should nevertheless be involved.
On Thursday evening, Google canceled the whole project.
"Its become clear that in the current environment, ATEAC cant function as we wanted. So were ending the council and going back to the drawing board," Google wrote in a statement affixed to the top of the announcement on Thursday. "Well 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."
Microsoft and Salesforce employees have  to their companies actions in the past couple of years.
