Stanford University Invites Former Google CEO Schmidt to Attend Conference Despite Dozens of Protests
Stanford University will host an artificial intelligence conference next month, and the keynote speaker of the conference, Schmidt, former Google CEO and Alphabet chairman, was protested by a joint open letter. However, Stanford HAI responded that it would not be cancelled. What exactly caused this storm?
Stanford University will host an artificial intelligence conference next month with former Google CEO and Alphabet chairmanEric Schmidt(Eric Schmidt) delivered the keynote speech.
But a group of academics, activists and current Google employees urged organizers to reconsider the decision, citing reasons includingSchmidt takes on Chinese censorship, his handling of sexual misconduct allegations at Google, and other controversies.
Why is a Google board member who has been on the board for 18 years now being protested?
Stanford University Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI)Schmidt was announced as one of several keynote speakers for the upcoming AI Ethics, Policy, and Governance conference.
This weekend, former Google scientist Jack Poulson(Jack Pulson) submitted an open letter to Stanford University to protest.
"There has recently been a serious and credible investigation into Schmidt's ethical conduct, and therefore,I strongly demand that he be removed from his position as the main spokesperson.Otherwise, I think the entire mission of your institute should be called into question.”
This letter is from More than 40 people jointly signedAmong them are 20 currentexist Employees working for YouTube or Google.Other signatories include professors and researchers at universities including Georgetown and Harvard, and the co-founder of GreatFire.org, an organization that opposes Chinese censorship.
Poulson publicly resigned from Google last year following reports that the company was building a custom version of its search engine for China.
Stanford responds that it will not cancel Schmidt's invitation
HAI said in a statement that it would not rescind its invitation to Schmidt.
"We hope this meeting will serve as an illuminating example of our commitment to holding discussions on tough issues," a spokesperson wrote.An open and vigorous debate,These issues would benefit from public discussion.To disinvite any of our speakers would be anathema to the conference, HAI, and the purpose of the university."
Professor at Stanford University, Deputy Director of HAI Rob Reich,A personal response was also made to Poulson. Reich said he would oppose their petition.
He wrote that Schmidt did not give a single keynote speech at this conference, but rather had a dialogue with Marietje Schaake, a former member of the European Parliament.It doesn't meet Poulson's requirements.
Then,Poulson was also invited to attend the meeting, and Poulson also revealed that he would attend as planned.
Poulson tweeted that he was not asking Stanford to remove Schmidt from the conference; he was just writing the petition to cancel his keynote speech.
In his response to Reich, Poulson said that simply attending the conference was fine, but that having Schmidt as a keynote speaker would mean that Stanford recognized him as a moral leader.He suggested that the keynote report could be changed to a round-table discussion format.Rather than critics “lining up to ask questions of the keynote speaker.”
Poulson also raised the issue of potential benefits becauseSchmidt has a special relationship with HAI.He is a member of the institute’s advisory board, and HAI co-director Fei-Fei Li is his former colleague and served as chief AI scientist at Google Cloud.
Schmidt himself stepped down as executive chairman of Alphabet (Google's parent company) in April, but he remains in a technical advisory role.
Google encourages employees to voice their opinions
The matter came to an end, and no one could give a definitive answer to the issues Poulson was concerned about and the controversy he raised.
But the good news is thatGoogle employees have beenProtest against some policies and plans,And some results have been achieved.That includes its handling of sexual harassment cases, its relationship with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and its military programs like Maven.
Last month, Google also released new guidelines on political speech in the workplace to prevent unnecessary political controversy and inappropriate disclosure of company information.
Their spokesperson stated, "We hope that Google employees will speak up when they feel something is wrong, and we will make full use of these opinions to promote some positive changes."
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