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Google defends scrapping AI pledges and DEI goals in all-staff meeting

theguardian.com

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Re: Google defends scrapping AI pledges and DEI goals in all-staff meeting

#4

Post by AlexErrant »

Of particular note:

> Parker said that, as a federal contractor, the company has been reviewing all of its programs and initiatives in response to Donald Trump’s executive orders that direct federal agencies and contractors to dismantle DEI work.

Re: Google defends scrapping AI pledges and DEI goals in all-staff meeting

#5

Post by blackeyeblitzar »

> “What’s not changing is we’ve always hired the best person for the job,” she said, according to a recording of the meeting the Guardian reviewed.

This is obviously a lie. Google’s more senior leaders had (and probably still have) quotas for hiring and promotions. If you didn’t hit quotas, not only did you face intense pressure to artificially skew things when HR reviewed numbers, but your performance (and compensation) would also be affected. Many people have privately talked about this, but most are afraid to speak up, due to the aggression of the progressive employees and the official DEI machine (from HR).

I wonder if Sundar will be brave enough to admit fault in how they handled the past, instead of just pretending nothing is changing. I am reminded of James Damore’s situation - he discussed something controversial in a polite way, with sources backing up his ideas, but was viciously attacked inside Google and also outside. News media regularly misrepresented what he said. His firing was unfair. That was just one example of how the company operated all this time. If that’s changing, they should own up to it.

Re: Google defends scrapping AI pledges and DEI goals in all-staff meeting

#10

Post by malcolmgreaves »

blackeyeblitzar wrote: post #5

> “What’s not changing is we’ve always hired the best person for the job,” she said, according to a recording of the meeting the Guardian reviewed. This is obviously a lie. Google’s more senior leaders had (and probably still have) quotas for hiring and promotions. If you didn’t hit quotas, not only did you face intense pressure to artificially skew things when HR reviewed numbers, but your performance (and compensat…

These quotas you speak of do not and have never existed.

James was a below average engineer who wanted the special treatment of his daddy’s generation.

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