Gebru was fired because she gave an ultimatum to her boss threatening to resign if they don't disclose names of all reviewers who criticized her work AND blasted group emails calling for sabotage https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f2kYWDXwhzYnq8ebVtuk9CqQ...
Mitchell was fired for exfiltrating thousands of files illegally and sending to external accounts https://venturebeat.com/2021/01/20/google-targets-ai-ethics-...
Rarely do people resign out of principle...but when you're claiming that your employer actively does evil and harms the least among us, and then continue to work for them, it is obvious that you are either entirely without morals OR you are saying what is socially rewarded to say, without meaning it.
Neither position is good for the soul.
Nobody in their right mind is going to quit their job over this during a pandemic, when it’s already so hard to find a job. I imagine ethics jobs are not in high demand.
Basically, is it more important to be right, or to be alive (or be employed).
- 2,000 signed a petition to support Timnit [1]
- 2 employees resigned to support Timnit [2]
When it comes to voting with your feet, no one actually gives a shit.
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/04/thousands-petition-google-fo...
[2] https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/04/tech/google-employees-quit/in...