Google fired engineer Blake Lemoine after claiming “the birth of intelligence” in its artificial intelligence algorithm LaMDA. The New York Times writes about it.

The company vehemently denied Lemoine’s claims, noting that LaMDA had gone through 11 different reviews. Google has also published a research paper detailing the work on responsible development.

According to the company, they carefully analyze the concerns of the employees in accordance with the principles of artificial intelligence.

“We found that Blake’s claims that LaMDA is responsive are completely unfounded and have been working with him for months to clarify this,” said Chris Pappas, spokesperson for the tech giant.

He added that despite Lemoine’s long interest in the issue, it violated explicit employment and data security policies that included the need to protect product information.

“We will continue to carefully develop the language models and wish Blake the best,” Pappas added.

In June 2022, Lemoine claimed in an interview with The Washington Post that one of the company’s artificial intelligence projects was allegedly sentient. The engineer also obviously wondered if LaMDA had a soul.

In response, Google sent Lemoine on paid leave, accusing her of violating her non-disclosure agreement.

Several members of the research community disagreed with the engineer’s claims. Former Google employee Margaret Mitchell tweeted that systems like LaMDA do not develop intent, but instead model human communication abilities.

Scientist and entrepreneur Gary Marcus called Lemoine’s statement “total bullshit.”

Recall that in May, Google fired an artificial intelligence researcher due to criticism of the tech giant. The engineer disputed the claim that algorithms could design chips more efficiently than humans.

In April 2021, the head of Google’s AI division left the company after 14 years with the company. His departure was linked to the controversial dismissals of Timnita Gebru and Margaret Mitchell, two leading researchers in artificial intelligence ethics.