About

The Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC) is a group of experts set up by Google to ensure responsible development and use of AI in their research and products.

Online History

On June 7th, 2018, Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, outlined Google's objectives in a Blogpost.^[1] Pichai listed the basic objectives as:

• Be socially beneficial.
• Avoid creating or reinforcing unfair bias.
• Be built and tested for safety.
• Be accountable to people.
• Incorporate privacy design principles.
• Uphold high standards of scientific excellence.
• Be made available for uses that accord with these principles.
  

Pichai also listed the AI Technologies Google will not pursue:

• Technologies that cause or are likely to cause overall harm.
• Weapons or other technologies whose principal purpose or implementation is to cause or directly facilitate injury to people.
• Technologies that gather or use information for surveillance violating internationally accepted norms.
• Technologies whose purpose contravenes widely accepted principles of international law and human rights.
  

On March 26th, 2019, Google Senior Vice President for Global Affairs and Chief Legal Officer Kent Walker announced the formation of the ATEAC and released the bios of the individual members (shown below) of the council.^[2] Walker states, "This inaugural Council will serve over the course of 2019, holding four meetings starting in April."

The members include:

• Alessandro Acquisti, a leading behavioral economist and privacy researcher. He’s a Professor of Information Technology and Public Policy at the Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University and the PwC William W. Cooper Professor of Risk and Regulatory Innovation.
• Bubacarr Bah, an expert in applied and computational mathematics. He’s a Senior Researcher, designated the German Research Chair of Mathematics with specialization in Data Science, at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) South Africa and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Stellenbosch University.
• De Kai, a leading researcher in natural language processing, music technology and machine learning. He’s Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Distinguished Research Scholar at Berkeley's International Computer Science Institute.
• Dyan Gibbens, an expert in industrial engineering and unmanned systems. She’s CEO of Trumbull, a Forbes Top 25 veteran-founded startup focused on automation, data and environmental resilience in energy and defense.
• Joanna Bryson, an expert in psychology and AI, and a longtime leader in AI ethics. She’s an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Bath. She has consulted for a number of companies on AI, notably at LEGO researching child-oriented programming techniques for the product that became LEGO Mindstorms.
• Kay Coles James, a public policy expert with extensive experience working at the local, state and federal levels of government. She’s currently President of The Heritage Foundation, focusing on free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom and national defense.
• Luciano Floridi, a leading philosopher and expert in digital ethics. He’s Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information at the University of Oxford, where he directs the Digital Ethics Lab of the Oxford Internet Institute, Professorial Fellow of Exeter College and Turing Fellow and Chair of the Data Ethics Group of the Alan Turing Institute.
• William Joseph Burns, a foreign policy expert and diplomat. He previously served as U.S. deputy secretary of state, and retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2014 after a 33-year diplomatic career. He’s currently President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the oldest international affairs think tank in the United States.
  

Kay Coles James Controversy

President of The Heritage Foundation, Kay Coles James, is a controversial member of the ATAEC for her far-right views. On December 7th, 2018, @KayColesJames^[6] tweeted, "The Trump administration is making good on its promise to end the policy war on coal and capitalize on our energy abundance" (shown below, left). Her tweet gained 20 retweets and 60 likes in four months. On February 26th James^[4] tweeted, "Donald Trump declared a national emergency after Congress refused to act. We have a crisis at our border: thousands of illegal aliens, dangerous criminals, drug smugglers and sex traffickers crossing the border every day" (shown below, right). The tweet gained 500 retweets and 2,200 likes in a month.

On March 20th, James^[7] tweeted, "Today @heritage will critique gender identity @UN_CSW because powerful nations are pressing for the radical redefining of sex. If they can change the definition of women to include men, they can erase efforts to empower women economically, socially, and politically. #CSW63" (shown below, left). The tweet gained 20 retweets and 50 likes in a week. The next day she tweeted,^[5] "The #EqualityAct is anything but equality. This bill would shut down businesses and charities, politicize medicine, endanger parental rights, and open every female bathroom and sports team to biological males" (shown below, right). The tweet accumulated 50 retweets and 80 likes in a week.

On March 26th, Joanna J Bryson^[8] discussed her fellow members of the ATEAC in a Twitter thread (shown below). She addresses James and states, "Believe it or not, I know worse about one of the other people." The thread has since been deleted.

That same day, Twitter user @farbandish^[3] tweeted, "Google is pleased to announce its new Responsible AI Development council, containing….the CEO of a drone company and the President of the fucking HERITAGE FOUNDATION" (shown below, left). The tweet gained 1,200 retweets and 2,700 likes in two days. @farbandish tweeted, "Hey @Google exactly what do you hope to get out of a responsibility advisor who hates trans people, foreigners, and the environment, just wondering" (shown below, right). The tweet gained 500 retweets and 1,180 likes in two days.

Search Interest

External References