Google AI staff demand the right to warn the public about the risks of their own work
Google researchers demand freedom to tell the world what they know about AI
Workers inside Google's AI division are pressing executives to lift non-disparagement agreements, arguing the contracts stop them from warning the public about the dangers of the technology they are building. Current employees describe a fight over whether the people closest to frontier AI can speak freely, and the company's response to their push.
Employment contracts deter staff from warning the public about AI risks, current workers said.
- boothby
- wrxd
Need more details. Any Googler willing to create a throwaway account and tell us what's going on?
- andreapaiola
Ok, I'll say it.
The news is: "AI is not that powerful or functional".
Sure, can change some little things but not that much. And we are overspending on it.
- K3UL
So in the article it says :
- a former employee did it with no consequences
- executives said they won't enforce it
The article is just about them asking for changing the wording of contracts, not some super secret stuff they're dying to say and really can't.
Without the paywall: https://archive.is/fKI3D
- ricksunny
from TFA, I liked seeing this, considering how influential Google HR policy choices are across the valley and beyond: “Recently, we’ve updated our terms for new hires, which included removing the post-termination aspect of non-disparagement clauses.”
- dachworker
Haven't we already heard the worst of it? If you let a swarm of agents on the loose with a goal, they will get to all kind of nefarious activity in pursuit of that goal. What could possibly be worse than that?
- thm
Gift link: https://wapo.st/4sFuF7P
- sxp
Tl;dr:
On Friday, a Google executive responded to the internal discussion about the non-disparagement clause and said that the company would not enforce it for workers who had left the company.
“We’ve always encouraged an open dialogue about safety and responsibility,” a Google spokesperson said in an email Tuesday. “Recently, we’ve updated our terms for new hires, which included removing the post-termination aspect of non-disparagement clauses.”
The company does not enforce non-disparagement clauses after people leave Google, and it has dedicated, internal channels for workers to escalate concerns to top leaders, the spokesperson said.