Google has cracked down on posts by a star AI researcher who made controversial comments about transgender people and accused some colleagues of antisemitism, in accordance with a report.
Noam Shazeer – who became co-lead on development of Google’s flagship AI models after the tech giant bought his startup Character.AI for $2.7 billion – reportedly miffed colleagues along with his posts this spring on a thread about International Transgender Day of Visibility.
“I don’t consider that humans have an attribute called gender,” Shazeer wrote, news site the Information reported Friday. “I don’t consider that G-d puts people within the fallacious bodies. I don’t consider that it’s okay to sterilize children. You’ve gotten the best to your beliefs. I don’t share them.”
The post drew pushback from multiple coworkers, with Shazeer’s manager on the time, Jeff Dean, amongst those that reportedly called him out.
“Noam, you don’t must agree with all positions others express, but as leaders, supporting our whole community of employees is something that we ought to be doing, not creating environments that don’t show this support for everybody,” Dean was quoted as stating to Shazeer.
David Silver, a top worker at Google’s DeepMind division, also took exception, writing: “leadership is a privilege and the words we speak matter.”
Shazeer’s post was later deleted by internal moderators, in accordance with the Infromation. He is just not expected to face disciplinary motion.
Last yr, he reportedly got kicked off an internal communication channel following complaints about his antisemitism allegations against colleagues, in accordance with the Information.
Shazeer reportedly clashed with coworkers who were upset that Google had relaxed its rules against developing AI that might be used for military or surveillance purposes. The workers were concerned that Google’s technology might be utilized by Israel in its war against Hamas.
Shazeer, who’s Jewish, incessantly accused coworkers who criticized Google over the policy change of being antisemitic, in accordance with the Information, which cited current and former employees.
Plans for Google staff to carry a lunch meeting on the firm’s London office drew a sarcastic remark from the AI guru, who is claimed to be friendly with Google’s cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
“LOL – you’ve got found a solution to take your anitsemitic Israel-bashing club offline where I can’t call you out on it,” he was quoted as saying.
Moderators reportedly removed Shazeer from the inner communications channel on which the exchanges had been happening.
Google declined to comment.
The corporate has an internal policy barring “discussions that make other Googlers feel like they don’t belong or don’t have any place here” on its message boards, including “making statements that insult, demean, or humiliate (whether individually or by reference to groups) other employees,” in accordance with a document viewed by the Information.
Last yr, the tech giant cracked down on posts related to the Israel-Hamas war that some employees considered antisemitic. The move led some Arab and Muslim employees to say their speech was being stifled.
In 2024, Google also fired greater than two dozen employees who staged disruptive sit-ins at offices in Recent York and California.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has warned employees not to debate politics within the workplace.
In a lengthy memo last yr, he said Google “is a business, and never a spot to act in a way that disrupts co-workers or makes them feel unsafe, to try to use the corporate as a private platform, or to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics.”
Google has cracked down on posts by a star AI researcher who made controversial comments about transgender people and accused some colleagues of antisemitism, in accordance with a report.
Noam Shazeer – who became co-lead on development of Google’s flagship AI models after the tech giant bought his startup Character.AI for $2.7 billion – reportedly miffed colleagues along with his posts this spring on a thread about International Transgender Day of Visibility.
“I don’t consider that humans have an attribute called gender,” Shazeer wrote, news site the Information reported Friday. “I don’t consider that G-d puts people within the fallacious bodies. I don’t consider that it’s okay to sterilize children. You’ve gotten the best to your beliefs. I don’t share them.”
The post drew pushback from multiple coworkers, with Shazeer’s manager on the time, Jeff Dean, amongst those that reportedly called him out.
“Noam, you don’t must agree with all positions others express, but as leaders, supporting our whole community of employees is something that we ought to be doing, not creating environments that don’t show this support for everybody,” Dean was quoted as stating to Shazeer.
David Silver, a top worker at Google’s DeepMind division, also took exception, writing: “leadership is a privilege and the words we speak matter.”
Shazeer’s post was later deleted by internal moderators, in accordance with the Infromation. He is just not expected to face disciplinary motion.
Last yr, he reportedly got kicked off an internal communication channel following complaints about his antisemitism allegations against colleagues, in accordance with the Information.
Shazeer reportedly clashed with coworkers who were upset that Google had relaxed its rules against developing AI that might be used for military or surveillance purposes. The workers were concerned that Google’s technology might be utilized by Israel in its war against Hamas.
Shazeer, who’s Jewish, incessantly accused coworkers who criticized Google over the policy change of being antisemitic, in accordance with the Information, which cited current and former employees.
Plans for Google staff to carry a lunch meeting on the firm’s London office drew a sarcastic remark from the AI guru, who is claimed to be friendly with Google’s cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
“LOL – you’ve got found a solution to take your anitsemitic Israel-bashing club offline where I can’t call you out on it,” he was quoted as saying.
Moderators reportedly removed Shazeer from the inner communications channel on which the exchanges had been happening.
Google declined to comment.
The corporate has an internal policy barring “discussions that make other Googlers feel like they don’t belong or don’t have any place here” on its message boards, including “making statements that insult, demean, or humiliate (whether individually or by reference to groups) other employees,” in accordance with a document viewed by the Information.
Last yr, the tech giant cracked down on posts related to the Israel-Hamas war that some employees considered antisemitic. The move led some Arab and Muslim employees to say their speech was being stifled.
In 2024, Google also fired greater than two dozen employees who staged disruptive sit-ins at offices in Recent York and California.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has warned employees not to debate politics within the workplace.
In a lengthy memo last yr, he said Google “is a business, and never a spot to act in a way that disrupts co-workers or makes them feel unsafe, to try to use the corporate as a private platform, or to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics.”
