Report: Google Sought Greater Control over Research Writings

Google reportedly moved to increase its control over research reports written by its scientists.

In 2020, the company created a new review, or examination, process for research writings, Reuters news agency reports. The process asks researchers to get advice from legal, policy and public relations teams before writing about some issues.

Review Process

The new review process aims to identify subjects that could be considered "sensitive" for the company. In at least three cases, Google officials asked writers not to show its technology in a bad light, Reuters reported. The news agency said its report was based on Google documents it was able to examine, as well as information from researchers involved in the work.

One company explanation told researchers that technology progress and growing complexities² in the outside "environment" had led to projects that could raise moral, legal or other problems.

Reuters could not confirm the date of the company communication. Three current employees said the policy began in June. Google did not have any comment on the Reuters story.

The new process for "sensitive" subjects adds more careful study to Google's usual review process for research papers, eight current and past employees said.

One subject considered "sensitive" was how some of Google's machine learning-powered services might be biased³ against some groups of people. Other subjects included the oil industry, China, Iran, Israel, COVID-19, home security, location data, religion, self-driving vehicles, telecommunications and systems designed to suggest websites.

For some projects, Google officials intervened later in the research. Earlier this year, a Google official reviewing a study on content suggestion technology told the writers to "take great care to strike a positive tone," documents provided to Reuters showed.

Strike a positive tone is an expression that means to avoid negative or critical language.

The official added, "This doesn't mean we should hide from the real challenges" created by the software.

Additional messages from a researcher to reviewers shows the writers made changes "to remove all references to Google products."

Four researchers, including scientist Margaret Mitchell, said they believe Google is starting to interfere⁵ with important studies on the possible harms of technology.

"If we are researching the appropriate thing given our expertise⁶, and we are not permitted to publish that on grounds that are not in line with high-quality peer review, then we're getting into a serious problem of censorship," Mitchell said.

Google states on its public website that its scientists have "substantial" freedom. Substantial is a term that means a large amount.

Ethics⁷ and AI

Disagreements between Google and some of its employees broke into public view this month after research scientist Timnit Gebru said she had been fired by the company. Gebru, along with Mitchell, led a 12-person team that studied ethics, or moral decisions, in artificial intelligence (AI) software.

Gebru says she was fired after questioning an order not to publish research claiming that AI software that copies speech could hurt some groups. Google said it had accepted Gebru's resignation. Reuters could not confirm whether Gebru's paper had gone through a "sensitive" subjects review.

Google Senior Vice¹ President Jeff Dean said in a statement this month that Gebru's paper discussed possible harms without discussing efforts underway to address them.

Dean added that Google supports AI ethics research and said the company was "actively⁸ working on improving our paper review processes."

Words in This Story

sensitive – adj. likely to cause people to become upset

biased – adj. having or showing a bias⁴ : having or showing an unfair tendency to believe that some people, ideas, etc., are better than others

location – n. a place or position

challenge – n. a difficult task or problem : something that is hard to do

reference – n. the act of mentioning something in speech or in writing : the act of referring to something or someone

appropriate – adj. right or suited for some purpose or situation

peer – n. a person who belongs to the same age, education or social group as someone else

censorship – n. the system or practice of censoring⁹ books, movies, letters, etc

artificial intelligence – n. an area of computer science that deals with giving machines the ability to seem like they have human intelligence

1 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

2 complexities   

复杂性(complexity的名词复数)； 复杂的事物

参考例句：

• The complexities of life bothered him. 生活的复杂使他困惑。
• The complexities of life bothered me. 生活的杂乱事儿使我心烦。

3 biased   

a.有偏见的

参考例句：

• a school biased towards music and art 一所偏重音乐和艺术的学校
• The Methods: They employed were heavily biased in the gentry's favour. 他们采用的方法严重偏袒中上阶级。

4 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

5 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

6 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

7 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。

8 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

9 censoring   

删剪（书籍、电影等中被认为犯忌、违反道德或政治上危险的内容）( censor的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Therefore, exhibitors shall not make use of these materials before censoring. 展商在审查前不可使用这些资料。
• The company then said it would end self-censoring search results, putting it at odds with Beijing. 随后该公司表示，将停止自我审查搜索结果，从而与中国政府发生对抗。