In a video on Google's blog, she also acknowledged dissent in the research areas now in her purview. “There's quite a lot of conflict right now within the field, and it can be polarising at times, and what I'd like to do is just have people have the conversation in a more diplomatic way,” she said.
Google employee Alex Hanna on Twitter called the news about Croak “a betrayal,” saying it occurred behind the Ethical AI team's back and did not address demands the team made after Gebru's firing.
Gebru said in a statement, “Marian is a highly accomplished trailblazing scientist that I had admired and even confided in. It's incredibly hurtful to see her legitimising what Jeff Dean and his subordinates have done to me and my team.”
Croak, who previously was working on site reliability for Google, will also oversee teams doing research related to accessibility, social good and fairness in health algorithms.