Google staff accuse company of 'racism and censorship' in dispute over ethics researcher Timnit Gebru

More than 1,200 Google employees have signed an open letter in support of an ousted Ethiopian-born artificial intelligence scholar who pioneered research in racial bias in facial recognition technology. Key points: Dr Gebru is known for her work identifying racial bias in facial recognition software She was reportedly ousted for authoring a research paper that criticised Google technology Observers say this has again raised questions over big tech's commitment to diversity and ethics On Wednesday, Timnit Gebru announced on Twitter she was fired. Dr Gebru on Tuesday vented her frustrations about the fate of her research paper to an internal diversity-and-inclusion email group at Google, which carried the subject line: "Silencing Marginalized Voices in Every Way Possible". Dr Gebru's paper raised valid points but "had some important gaps that prevented us from being comfortable putting Google affiliation on it," Dr Dean wrote. "Ousting Timnit for having the audacity to demand research integrity severely undermines Google's credibility for supporting rigorous research on AI ethics and algorithmic auditing," said Joy Buolamwini, a graduate researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who co-authored the 2018 facial recognition study with Gebru.