The entire ethics and society team responsible for guiding the artificial intelligence organization in product production has been sacked as part of Microsoft’s recent layoffs. This move comes at a time when AI ethics discourse is at an all-time high with the increase in global popularity of bots like ChatGPT and could spell trouble in the very near future.
Microsoft still has an active ‘Office of Responsible AI’ which is responsible for creating rules and principles to guide AI initiatives, and says there is still a committed investment in ethical development despite a considerable downsizing in staff in the area.
The ethics and society team was at its highest capacity in 2020, with about 30 employees consisting of engineers, designers, and philosophers. The variation in expertise and skills on the team provides a larger, more varied bank of knowledge to draw from when deciding on the ‘rules’ and principles that will be reflected in future AI products. As part of a reorganization, the team was sliced down to just seven people, who have now been laid off.
No comments:
Post a Comment