Former Google Employee Says Firm Is ‘Obsessed’ with Saving Its Reputation After Sexual Harassment Claims

A former employee at the Google-owned AI research firm DeepMind is claiming that the company is trying to “discredit” her and “salvage their own reputation” following her recent allegations of sexual harassment and assault at the firm.

Breitbart News previously reported that a former DeepMind employee accused the Google-owned artificial intelligence firm of mishandling multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment. A female member of staff, referred to as Julia to protect her identity, claimed that in December 2019, a senior researcher at the London AI research firm sexually assaulted her twice.

Julia alleges that the same senior researcher threatened suicide and alluded to past instances of rape. DeepMind employs more than 1,000 people and is considered one of the world’s most respected AI research firms. The company said that Julia’s “allegations were investigated thoroughly, and the individual who was investigated for misconduct was “dismissed without any severance payments.”

In a letter to her former colleagues, Julia argued that there are major flaws in how grievances including hers are handled by DeepMind. Julia and two former DeepMind employees allege that the company prioritizes the protection of its reputation and top talent over the safety of potential victims.

Julia emailed a six-page confessional document by the researcher that assaulted her, written in the third person on August 18, 2019, in which the researcher detailed suicidal tendencies, reference to the rape of unconscious women, and sex addiction.

In an email to senior company leadership in August 2019, Julia stated: “According to your own findings, I was subjected to sexual harassment, assault and abuse . . . I will never be the same person. I have spent almost the entire last year fearing for my safety. There is absolutely . . . no reason why the investigation was so dysfunctional.”

Business Insider now reports that the former employee has published another open letter criticizing the response from Deepmind and what she refers to as an “obsession with reputation management” and “platitudes” from DeepMind’s leadership. In her latest letter, the former employee included screenshots of redacted emails between herself and DeepMind’s HR department from 2019 and 2020.

The former employee wrote in the letter:

I want to maintain focus on what matters: how do we make sure this never happens again? What do DeepMinders value, and how will DeepMind express those values moving forward?

Instead, DeepMind’s messaging has attempted to diffuse the focus of the conversation using transparent attempts to undermine and qualify the experience of a colleague who experienced extreme harassment by a senior staff member. It is precisely this obsession with reputation management, at the cost of its employees’ well-being, that needs to change. In fact, the company’s response was so poor it was used as an example of how not to handle sensitive allegations by a prominent PR publication. Of course, there will never be an admission of apology or regret, for legal reasons. There will never be an admission that things, maybe, possibly were not handled well, for legal reasons. But DeepMind’s leadership can avoid admitting guilt, and, at the same time, not minimise my experience.

She added that her complaint against her harasser at the company took months to resolve before he was eventually fired in late 2020. She further claimed that DeepMind told others that she had said she felt safe around her harasser and other was “no evidence he posed harm to other DeepMinders,” a claim which she says is false.

“I repeatedly shared my safety concerns with HR–both for other DeepMinders as well as myself–beginning in August 2019. HR had clear evidence that he was, and remained, a threat to this DeepMinder, if no one else: claims that were confirmed by their own investigation,” she wrote.

DeepMind refused to comment on many aspects of the letter when contacted by Business Insider, but did note that the company does not ask employees who file grievances to sign non-disclosure agreements. “DeepMind does not ask (and has never asked) people who raise concerns to sign NDAs as part of the grievance process,” the spokesman said. “DeepMinders who take part in investigations can definitely speak to their manager and their P&C [people and culture] partner, and they can share the details of their personal experiences to receive the support they need.”

Read more at Business Insider here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com