Google LLC Chief Executive Sundar Pichai today told staff he will investigate the exit of an artificial intelligence ethicist following an eruption of denunciation from inside and outside the company.

The controversy started when Dr. Timnit Gebru (pictured) announced that she had been fired by Google for speaking out about what she and others view as the company’s unremarkable diversity initiatives. That caused a stir as soon as Gebru took to Twitter, after which Google responded saying she had been let go because she had told her superiors she’d resign if they didn’t publish a paper she had written.

Many people have supported Gebru on social media, saying that as a black woman working within a “white patriarchy,” she has been silenced. For the most part, media outlets have embraced that line, although Google has stuck to its guns and said she was let go because of the impossible ultimatum she gave.

“I felt like we were being censored and thought this had implications for all of ethical AI research,” Gebru told Wired in an interview. “You’re not going to have papers that make the company happy all the time and don’t point out problems. That’s antithetical to what it means to be that kind of researcher.”

Soon after, around 1,200 Google employees signed a letter stating that they were unhappy with what had happened to Gebru. A separate letter similar in design was signed by over 1,500 researchers. Despite Google’s conviction that her firing was entirely justified and the company had been given no choice since her paper was not publishable, the writing on the wall has depicted Google as the oppressive giant and Gebru as a David that represents minorities. It’s likely the situation is more complicated, in spite of all the self-assured mudslinging by the press.

Today, Pichai seemed to acknowledge that division and told staff in a memo that the company would investigate the matter. “I’ve heard the reaction to Dr. Gebru’s departure loud and clear: it seeded doubts and led some in our community to question their place at Google,” he wrote. “I want to say how sorry I am for that, and I accept the responsibility of working to restore your trust.”

Pichai didn’t say that Google had done anything wrong, but he promised to “assess the circumstances that led up to Dr. Gebru’s departure” and see if there could have been a better way to let her go. Gebru soon posted on Twitter, stating that Google was refusing to take responsibility for its actions. “I see this as ‘I’m sorry for how it played out but I’m not sorry for what we did to her yet,’” she said.

Photo: TechCrunch/Flickr