Microsoft lays off entire AI ethics team while going all out on ChatGPT
This month saw the surprise dissolution of Microsoft’s entire Ethics & Society team—the latest casualty in the company’s ongoing layoffs affecting 10,000 employees, or roughly 5 percent of its entire global workforce. As first reported by The Verge on Monday, the news allegedly came after Microsoft’s corporate vice president of AI assured remaining employees that their jobs were safe. Once a 30-member department, the Ethics & Society team had been reduced to just seven people in October 2022 following an internal reorganization.
The move strikes many experts as worrisome, especially now—Microsoft’s Ethics & Society department was responsible for ensuring the company’s principles pertaining to artificial intelligence development were reflected in product designs. Most recently, The Verge explained the group worked to identify risks within the company’s plans to rapidly integrate OpenAI’s tech into its product suite. Microsoft has so far invested over $11 billion in the AI startup.
Amid the multiple waves of dramatic layoffs that have roiled Big Tech in recent months, Microsoft first announced plans in January to ax approximately 10,000 jobs from its global workforce by March 2023. The major cutback occurred as a new “AI arms race” kicked off between companies including Microsoft, Google, and Meta. All three and others are rushing to deliver on their lofty promises of chat programs, text generators, and revolutionary online search aids to consumers. Industry observers continue to urge caution against wantonly unleashing hastily tested, frequently problematic generative AI software.
