Dear Google
Dear Google CEO Pichai:
You said in a recent company-wide email after the forced resignation of Dr. Gebru your company needs to start implementing “de-escalation strategies.”
This is one of the leading AI researchers in the world we’re talking about. She is on track to still be doing great things in the field of Artificial Intelligence long after you’re no longer Google’s CEO. She’s not an angry Black woman like Madea.
I can’t tell you how insulting that is. The tragic thing about it is, you probably mean well. It’s tragic because people like you need people like Dr. Gebru to tell people who mean well when they’re not doing well. I see why your company can’t attract, hire, or retain Black people. you probably couldn’t even find a Black woman in your company to read over that email and advise you to change the wording.
Let Me Spell It Out
Let me spell it out for you. According to Dr. Gebru’s research, you and your fellow execs can’t prance around preaching to execs from other industries “green this” and “green that” when the search engine that drives your business has just as large of a carbon footprint. Yes. That is a big deal. Much more important than whatever your numbers may look like at the end of this quarter. Your bulldog, Jeff Dean, knew the gravity of her findings which is why he censored the paper in the first place. I won’t even get into the fact the large poorly curated language models you all use can potentially be used to be the most deceptive sources of misinformation humanity has ever seen.
Instead of writing fancy emails, how about you call Dr. Gebru and talk to her like a normal person. You lead a large software company. I’m sure there are a number of Google product options you could have used to do that.
By the way, I hope you’ve figured out by now what you all have been doing after the tragic death of George Floyd apparently has not changed the climate. My advice to you: do more and gaslight less.
Signed,
Mensah Alkebu-Lan
