Microsoft recently laid off its entire ethics and society team, a group dedicated to guiding AI innovation toward ethical and sustainable outcomes. The team was responsible for ensuring that Microsoft’s responsible AI principles were reflected in the design of its products that were shipped. The move has called into question the company’s commitment to ethical AI, particularly at a time when its AI tools are becoming more widely available to the mainstream.
The elimination of the ethics and society team is part of a recent spate of layoffs affecting 10,000 employees across Microsoft. The company is investing billions more dollars into its partnership with OpenAI, the startup behind AI systems like ChatGPT and DALL-E 2, and is revamping its Bing search engine and Edge web browser to be powered by a next-generation large language model that is “more powerful than ChatGPT and customized specifically for search.”
While Microsoft still maintains its Office of Responsible AI, which sets rules for responsible AI through governance and public policy work, the elimination of the ethics and society team raises concerns about the actual implementation of responsible AI principles in product design. The team had been working to identify risks posed by Microsoft’s integration of OpenAI’s technology across its suite of products.
The ethics and society team was small, with only about seven people remaining after a reorganization in October. Pressure from the chief technology officer Kevin Scott and CEO Satya Nadella to get the most recent OpenAI models, as well as next iterations, into customers’ hands as quickly as possible likely contributed to the team’s elimination.
Members of the team believe that they were let go because Microsoft had become more focused on getting its AI products shipped before the competition, and was less concerned with long-term, socially responsible thinking. Teams like Microsoft’s ethics and society department often pull the reins on big tech organizations by pointing out potential societal consequences or legal ramifications, and Microsoft perhaps didn’t want to hear “No” anymore as it became focused on taking market share away from Google’s search engine.
The move by Microsoft underscores the need for companies to integrate responsible AI principles throughout their organizations, from product design to governance and public policy work. Responsible AI is not only important for ethical and sustainable outcomes, but also for building trust with customers and stakeholders. Companies that prioritize responsible AI principles are more likely to succeed in the long term, as customers increasingly demand ethical and sustainable products and services.
As AI becomes more ubiquitous in our lives, it’s crucial for companies to prioritize responsible AI principles in their operations. Microsoft’s elimination of its ethics and society team is a concerning move, particularly at a time when AI is becoming more widely available to the mainstream. It’s important for companies to prioritize responsible AI principles in product design and throughout their organizations, and to work with experts in ethics and society to ensure that their AI tools are developed in a socially responsible manner.
