Daily Archives: February 22, 2021

The tech giant had also banned political ads on its platforms, including YouTube and Google search pages, after the 2020 election. | Richard Vogel/AP Photo

Google will lift its ban on political ads on Wednesday, ending a self-imposed prohibition that had been active since the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Google announced the decision in an email to political clients Monday morning. The tech giant had also banned political ads on its platforms, including YouTube and Google search pages, after the 2020 election as part of a broader effort to clamp down on political misinformation. Google will now return ads from campaigns and ads on political topics to those sites, which have seen nearly $750 million in advertising since the spring of 2018, according to Google's ad disclosure portal.

Facebook which temporarily and narrowly lifted its own political ad ban ahead of the Georgia Senate runoffs in January before reimposing it once again has not yet announced when (or if) it will lift its own ban on political ads.

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Google to lift political ad ban this week - POLITICO

Two months after the jarring departure of a well-known artificial intelligence researcher at Google, a second A.I. researcher at the company said she was fired after criticizing the way it has treated employees who were working on ways to address bias and toxicity in its artificial intelligence systems.

Margaret Mitchell, known as Meg, who was one of the leaders of Googles Ethical A.I. team, sent a tweet on Friday afternoon saying merely: Im fired.

Google confirmed that her employment had been terminated. After conducting a review of this managers conduct, we confirmed that there were multiple violations of our code of conduct, read a statement from the company.

The statement went on to claim that Dr. Mitchell had violated the companys security policies by lifting confidential documents and private employee data from the Google network. The company said previously that Dr. Mitchell had tried to remove such files, the news site Axios reported last month.

Dr. Mitchell said on Friday evening that she would soon have a public comment.

Dr. Mitchells post on Twitter comes less than two months after Timnit Gebru, the other leader of the Ethical A.I. team at Google, said that she had been fired by the company after criticizing its approach to minority hiring as well as its approach to bias in A.I. In the wake of Dr. Gebrus departure from the company, Dr. Mitchell strongly and publicly criticized Googles stance on the matter.

More than a month ago, Dr. Mitchell said that she had been locked out of her work accounts. On Wednesday, she tweeted that she remained locked out after she tried to defend Dr. Gebru, who is Black.

Exhausted by the endless degradation to save face for the Upper Crust in tech at the expense of minorities lifelong careers, she wrote.

Dr. Mitchells departure from the company was another example of the rising tension between Googles senior management and its work force, which is more outspoken than workers at other big companies. The news also highlighted a growing conflict in the tech industry over bias in A.I., which is entwined with questions involving hiring from underrepresented communities.

Todays A.I. systems can carry human biases because they learn their skills by analyzing vast amounts of digital data. Because the researchers and engineers building these systems are often white men, many worry that researchers are not giving this issue the attention it needs.

Google announced in a blog post yesterday that an executive at the company, Marian Croak, who is Black, will oversee a new group inside the company dedicated to responsible A.I.

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A second Google A.I. researcher says the company fired her. - The New York Times

Google is changing its policies related to research and diversity after completing an internal investigation into the firing of ethical AI team co-leader Timnit Gebru, according to Axios. The company intends to tie the pay of certain executives to diversity and inclusivity goals. Its also making changes to how sensitive employee exits are managed.

Although Google did not reveal the results of the investigation, the changes seem to be direct responses to how the situation with Gebru went down. After Google demanded that a paper she co-authored be retracted, Gebru told research team management that she would resign from her position and work on a transition plan, unless certain conditions were met. Instead of a transition plan, the company immediately ended her employment while she was on vacation. This sparked backlash from members of her team, and even caused some Google engineers to quit in protest.

Google had claimed that Gebrus paper was not submitted properly, though the research team disagreed. Google has now said it will streamline its process for publishing research, according to Axios, but the exact details of the policy changes werent given.

In an internal email to staff, Jeff Dean, head of AI at Google, wrote:

I heard and acknowledge what Dr. Gebrus exit signified to female technologists, to those in the Black community and other underrepresented groups who are pursuing careers in tech, and to many who care deeply about Googles responsible use of AI. It led some to question their place here, which I regret.

He also apologized for how Gebrus exit was handled, although he stopped short of calling it a firing.

The policy changes come a day after Google restructured its AI teams, a change which members of the ethical AI team were the last to know about, according to research scientist Alex Hanna, who is a part of the team.

Google declined to share the updated policies with The Verge, instead pointing to Axioss article for details.

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Google is changing its diversity and research policies after Timnit Gebrus firing - The Verge

The customer acquisition game has changed in the last year for DTC brands, with customer acquisition costs fluctuating and e-commerce becoming the dominant retail channel. Two-year-old DTC brand Xena Workwear is an online-only brand thats managed to ride some of those changes to a year of growth. Its annual sales increased by more than 1,000% in 2020, and the company hit a milestone of selling 1,000 pairs of boots per month.

Xena CMO Eugene Furman attributed the growth to efficient use of Google Shopping and Google search ads, which along with Facebook ads, make up more than 75% of the brands marketing budget. While Amazon is where many consumers begin their search, he said hed rather invest in Google because of the wealth of data it provides, compared to Amazon.

Amazon controls all of your data, Furman said. If someone searches [your brand] on Amazon, all the data goes to Amazon. They control everything. They may share it with you, but theyre trying to drive sales on their own site. But Google drives to your site, and they want to promote you. Amazon is sort of like renting, and Google is like owning. We just get a lot more data from Google about whos searching for us, how many people clicked through and what [search] terms are pointing to us.

Furman said Xena has been increasing its ad spend on Google, up to several thousand dollars per day from just over $1,000, over the last six months. In that time, 90% of the customers who landed on the site via Google Shopping were new customers, and the brand saw a 10x return on investment off the total ad spend.

But Furman said growing through Google isnt as simple as putting more money in.

The basic goal is to increase spend and continue seeing returns, Furman said. Its actually a little difficult to scale that, though. I cant just pour $1 million into Google overnight and expect to see $1 million worth of return. The algorithm needs time to adjust and serve your ads to the right people, which takes time. Increasing your spend by a lot, all at once, gives you diminishing returns. So were trying to increase our spend on Google ads slowly, but steadily. Were up to a few thousand dollars per day, which is pretty significant as you can imagine, but as long as we continue to see returns, well keep growing that spend.

Furman said as the brand has grown, its expanded what ad words its using from solely branded terms to adjacent terms, like horseback riding.

Google has made changes to how its Shopping tab works in the last year, making it free to sell on Google in April of 2020 and ceasing commission charges for Google Shopping sales in June. Now, it costs nothing for brands to have their products listed on Google, though they can still pay for sponsored listings at the top of a Google search page. While paid listings still beat out free listings and the usual SEO strategies are at work for determining the order of search results, Google presents this change as a win-win for all involved.

For retailers, this change means free exposure to millions of people who come to Google every day for their shopping needs, said Bill Ready, president of commerce at Google. For shoppers, it means more products from more stores, discoverable through the Google Shopping tab. For advertisers, this means paid campaigns can now be augmented with free listings.

Brands have largely returned to spending on Google ads in the last quarter, after pulling back from a lot of digital spending throughout 2020. In the quarter ending at the beginning of February, Googles search and ad revenue was $31.9 billion, up from $27.2 billion in the previous quarter.

Link:

How Xena Workwears Google Shopping strategy led to 10x ad returns - Glossy

Google has fired Margaret Mitchell, co-lead of the ethical AI team, after she used an automated script to look through her emails in order to find evidence of discrimination against her coworker Timnit Gebru. The news was first reported by Axios.

Mitchells firing comes one day after Google announced a reorganization to its AI teams working on ethics and fairness. Marian Croak, a vice president in the engineering organization, is now leading a new center of expertise on responsible AI within Google Research, according to a blog post.

Mitchell joined Google in 2016 as a senior research scientist, according to her LinkedIn. Two years later, she helped start the ethical AI team alongside Gebru, a renowned researcher known for her work on bias in facial recognition technology.

In December 2020, Mitchell and Gebru were working on a paper about the dangers of large language processing models when Megan Kacholia, vice president of Google Brain, asked that the article be retracted. Gebru pushed back, saying the company needed to be more open about why the research wasnt acceptable. Shortly afterwards, she was fired, though Google characterized her departure as a resignation.

After Gebrus termination, Mitchell became openly critical of Google executives, including Google AI division head Jeff Dean and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. In January, she lost her corporate email access after Google began investigating her activity.

After conducting a review of this managers conduct, we confirmed that there were multiple violations of our code of conduct, as well as of our security policies, which included the exfiltration of confidential business-sensitive documents and private data of other employees, Google said in a statement to Axios about Mitchells firing.

On Friday, Google announced it was making changes to its research and diversity policies, following an investigation into Gebrus termination. In an internal email, Jeff Dean apologized to staff for how Gebrus departure was handled. I heard and acknowledge what Dr. Gebrus exit signified to female technologists, to those in the Black community and other underrepresented groups who are pursuing careers in tech, and to many who care deeply about Googles responsible use of AI. It led some to question their place here, which I regret, he said.

The ethical AI team has been in crisis since Gebrus firing in December. After the reorganization announcement yesterday, senior researcher Alex Hanna wrote that the team was not aware of Croaks appointment until the news broke publicly Wednesday night. We were told to trust the process, trust in decision-makers like Marian Croak to look out for our best interests, she said on Twitter. But these decisions were made behind our backs.

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Google fires second AI ethics researcher following internal investigation - The Verge

Tech companies including Facebook and Google have released the final version of a long-awaited industry code to address the spread of misinformation on their services in Australia.

The release comes only days after Facebook blocked Australians from viewing and sharing "news content" on its platform, leading experts to predict that misinformation would spread more rapidly in the news vacuum.

The code could change the experience of using social media in Australia, with more pop-up warnings about fake news, as well as better systems to report misinformation.

Misinformation is false or misleading information, and disinformation is the same, but spread with an intent to mislead.

In December 2019, the Australian Government asked the digital industry to develop a code to address disinformation. A pandemic later, these companies, represented by the industry association DIGI, have now released a final version.

Under the code, which is voluntary, all signatories commit to develop and implement measures to deal with mis- and disinformation on their services.

The current signatories are Twitter, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, TikTok and Redbubble (an online marketplace for user-submitted art).

The emphasis of the code is on outcomes rather than specific actions: signatories will choose how to best address misinformation on their service.

The code gives examples of what they may do, including labelling false content, demoting the ranking of content, prioritising credible sources, suspension or disabling of accounts and removal of content.

The signatories will each publish an annual report on their progress.

The Australian media regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), which is tasked with overseeing the development of the code, criticised this lack of specific measures or targets when DIGI released a draft version of the code in October 2020.

The ACMA has the power to recommend the government introduce mandatory regulation if the code isn't up to scratch.

But commenting on Monday on the release of the final version, which experts say is much the same as the draft one, the ACMA was broadly positive.

ACMA chairwoman Nerida O'Loughlin said she welcomed the code as a flexible and proportionate approach to dealing with mis- and disinformation online.

"The code anticipates platforms' actions will be graduated and proportionate to the risk of harm," she said.

"This will assist them to strike an appropriate balance between dealing with troublesome content and the right to freedom of speech and expression.

"Signatories will also publish an annual report and additional information on actions that they will take so that users know what to expect when they access these services."

The code also contains a range of non-mandatory objectives including having better systems for reporting incidents of misinformation, and disallowing fake news accounts from collecting advertising money.

The company debuts an overhaul of its core social network as it tries to move past a stream of scandals while tapping new revenue sources.

The final version of the code adds an extra objective that was not in the draft: to provide greater transparency about the source of political advertising on platforms.

Facebook and Google already publish real-time data on how much money parties and other groups are spending on political ads.

Andrea Carson, an associate professor in communication at La Trobe University, said the code was a good start and the companies should be given a chance to show how they will address disinformation.

"It's too premature to speak too much about it until we give the code a go and see how serious and sincere the companies are," she said.

"The platforms are still teenagers and it's taken a while for the laws to catch up and now we're getting into that space."

The ACMA will report to the government no later than 30 June 2021 on initial compliance with the code and its effectiveness.

Minister for Communications Paul Fletcher said the government "will be watching carefully to see whether this voluntary code is effective".

The European Union oversaw the introduction of a voluntary industry code for disinformation in 2018, but is now looking at mandatory regulation.

A May 2020 independent review of the EU code found the self-regulatory nature of the agreement made it difficult for the platforms to be held to account for breaches in the code.

Reset Australia, an organisation working to counter digital threats to democracy, described the DIGI code as "pointless and shameless" and proposed in its place a public regulator with the power to issue fines and other penalties.

Reset Australia Executive Director Chris Cooper said companies such as Facebook were continuing to use algorithms that actively promote misinformation, despite committing to addressing the problem.

"This is a regulatory regime that would be laughed out of town if suggested by any other major industry," he said.

"Industry should never be allowed to just write its own rules."

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Facebook, Google, Twitter release industry code to fight spread of disinformation - ABC News

Google plans to change its approach for handling how certain employees leave the company after finishing a months-long review of the abrupt and controversial departure of prominent Black artificial intelligence researcher Timnit Gebru.

Jeff Dean, Googles head of AI, announced several policy changes in an internal memo Friday, a copy of which was obtained by CNN Business. The changes include having HR employees review sensitive employee exits.

Dean also said the company will work to address diversity issues by more than doubling the staff that works on retaining Google employees. Additionally, he said Google will make diversity, equity and inclusion efforts part of the performance evaluations for Google employees at and above the vice-president level.

Axios was first to report the policy tweaks. Google declined to comment.

The memo marks the conclusion of an investigation that CEO Sundar Pichai announced to Google employees soon after Gebru left the company in December.

Until early December, when she abruptly left the company, Gebru was the co-leader of Googles Ethical AI team. A pioneer in the research of bias and inequality in AI, she was also one of few Black employees at the company overall (3.7% of Google employees are Black, according to the companys 2020 annual diversity report). The research scientist is also co-founder of the group Black in AI, which aims to increase representation of Black people in the field.

Gebru initially tweeted that she had been immediately fired for an email she had recently sent to Googles Brain Women and Allies internal mailing list. In the email she expressed dismay over the ongoing lack of diversity at the company and frustration over an internal process related to the review of a not-yet published research paper she coauthored. Dean wrote in an email to Google Research employees (which he also posted publicly) that the paper in question was not submitted for internal review far enough in advance of its deadline, and that it didnt meet our bar for publication.

In later tweets, Gebru clarified that no one at Google explicitly told her that she was fired. Rather, she said Google would not meet a number of her conditions for returning and accepted her resignation immediately because it felt that her email reflected behavior that is inconsistent with the expectations of a Google manager.

Gebrus sudden exit sparked anger among many Google employees and others in the tech industry that continues to simmer months later, often exhibited via emotional posts on Twitter. This year, two Google employees quit over Gebrus exit. Margaret Mitchell, a Google researcher who until Gebrus abrupt departure co-led the group with her, was put on administrative leave in January, as she confirmed to CNN Business at the time.

In the memo on Friday, Dean said of Gebrus contentious exit that the company could have and should have handled this situation with more sensitivity and that he regrets that it led to some employees questioning whether they belong at Google.

Its important that the Research org, along with the rest of Google, is a place where everyone feels like they belong and has the opportunity to succeed, he wrote. He also said Google will clarify internally what its process is for publishing sensitive research going forward.

Gebru responded to the memo on Friday by tweeting, I write an email asking for things, I get fired, and then after a 3 month investigation, they say they should probably do some of the things I presumably got fired asking for, without holding anyone accountable for their actions.

A Google employee familiar with the situation who requested anonymity due to privacy concerns called Deans note a non-apology and said it sounds vague and hand-wavey.

I have no faith in it, the employee said.

The memo came a day after Google announced it shuffled the leadership of its responsible artificial intelligence efforts. Marian Croak, a Black woman who has been a vice president at the company for six years working on a range of projects including getting public Wi-Fi on railroads in India, will run a new center focused on responsible AI within Google Research.

Croak will report to Dean. Ten teams centered around AI ethics, fairness, and accessibility including the Ethical AI team will report to her.

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Google rethinks how it handles 'sensitive' employee exits after controversy over AI researcher's departure | NewsChannel 3-12 - KEYT