Tech
Microsoft lays off AI ethics and society team
Tech giant, Microsoft has laid off its entire ethics and society team within the artificial intelligence department of the organization.
According to employees affected by the layoff, the development leaves “Microsoft without a dedicated team to ensure its AI principles are closely tied to product design.”
Ripples Nigeria understands that the move comes at a time when the company is leading the charge to make AI tools available to the mainstream.
Reacting in a statement, Microsoft noted that despite the recent layoff, it is still investing in AI, a statement industry experts has tagged as a way of the company to protect its image.
“Microsoft is committed to developing AI products and experiences safely and responsibly, and does so by investing in people, processes, and partnerships that prioritize this.
“Over the past six years we have increased the number of people across our product teams and within the Office of Responsible AI who, along with all of us at Microsoft, are accountable for ensuring we put our AI principles into practice. […] We appreciate the trailblazing work the Ethics & Society did to help us on our ongoing responsible AI journey.”
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Commenting on the layoff, some ex-Microsoft employees said the ethics and society team before their layoff played a critical role in ensuring that the company’s responsible AI principles were reflected in the design of the products that ship.
“Our job was to … create rules in areas where there were none.”
“People would look at the principles coming out of the office of responsible AI and say, ‘I don’t know how this applies.’ Our job was to show them and to create rules in areas where there were none.”
In 2020, the size of the ethics and society team was at its largest, roughly 30 employees including engineers, designers, and philosophers.
Since 2020, the team had suffered various wave of layoffs that reduced the team to about seven people In October.
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