Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Monday 26 august 2019
US tech industry becomes hotbed for employee activism

By SAMANTHA MALDONA- the Justice Department
DO last month launched an
Associated Press investigation into big tech
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — companies amid antitrust
When Liz O'Sullivan was allegations. A recent Pew
hired at the New York City- Research Center survey in-
based artificial intelligence dicated Americans have
company Clarifai in 2017, an increasingly negative
she felt lucky to find work view of tech's effect on the
at the intersection of two of country.
her main interests: technol- "As an employee in the
ogy and ethics. Two years tech sector right now, there
later, she found herself fac- is a fair bit of guilt or (ask-
ing a moral dilemma. ing), 'What is my responsibil-
Clarifai was developing ity?'" said Kellie McElhaney,
aerial photography and a professor at the Haas
object detection tools as School of Business at UC
one of several companies Berkeley.
working on Project Maven, Amr Gaber, 32, a Google
a Pentagon drone surveil- engineer, was among sev-
lance program. After sev- eral tech workers at a July
eral conversations with demonstration in front of
friends and colleagues, Facebook's San Francisco
O'Sullivan realized this type In this photo taken July 16, 2019, tech workers march to support Facebook's cafeteria workers, office supporting cafete-
of technology eventually who were rallying for a new contract with their company Flaghship in San Francisco. ria workers seeking a new
could be used for autono- Associated Press contract. He said although
mous weapons. the white-collar workers are
In January, she wrote to never before: collar employees to shake you're working with to build more privileged, they're all
Clarifai CEO Matt Zeiler — Amazon and Microsoft themselves of the privilege these tools." working people.
on behalf of a group of employees demanded that they have and to re- Facebook and Palantir did "Our fortunes are tied to-
employees, seeking clari- the companies stop pro- ally see the impact of the not respond to requests for gether," Gaber said. "If the
fication on whether the viding services to software work they're doing," said comment. (companies) can't even
technology would be used company Palantir, which Veena Dubal, a professor An Amazon spokesperson treat the people who work
to create weapons and provides technology to at the University of Califor- declined to comment on for them well, then how
asking him to commit to federal agencies including nia Hastings College of the employee activism but not- can we expect them to
a series of ethical mea- Immigration and Customs Law who has interviewed ed the Seattle-based com- have a positive impact on
sures. Zeiler later explained Enforcement and the U.S. dozens of tech workers in- pany is committed to sus- society?"
at a meeting that Clarifai Army. volved in organizing. tainability and said it pro- There's evidence compa-
likely would provide tech — Amazon employees also They're feeling embold- vides good pay and bene- nies are listening.
for autonomous weapons. have urged the company ened because of national fits and humane conditions Google and Facebook
O'Sullivan quit the next day. to transition to renewable and global "existential cri- at its warehouses. At the pledged to pay contract
"I was very surprised and energy and confronted ses" and the realization stakeholder meeting, Bezos workers better and provide
had to follow my con- CEO Jeff Bezos at a share- that tech companies "have didn't directly address em- some benefits. Google
science," she said. Zeiler holder meeting. more power than any mul- ployees' renewable energy ended forced arbitra-
and Clarifai did not re- — Following last year's tinational corporation has demands but referred to tion for sexual misconduct
spond to a request for com- walkouts over Google's had in a long time," Dubal some sustainability efforts cases after its employees
ment from The Associated handling of sexual miscon- said. already underway. walked out. Following em-
Press. In a 2018 blog, Zeiler duct cases, employees The phenomenon is par- A Microsoft spokesperson ployee outcry, Google de-
defended Clarifai's involve- signed a letter protesting ticularly strong in the San said the company, head- clined to renew its contract
ment in Project Maven, Project Dragonfly, a search Francisco Bay Area, home quartered in the Seattle with the Pentagon for work
saying it aligned with the engine that would comply to Salesforce, Google and area, appreciates employ- on Project Maven.
company's mission of ac- with Chinese censorship. Palantir, among others. The ee feedback, respects dif- When employees asked
celerating human progress — Staff at Salesforce, Mi- bastion of activism and fering views and provides Microsoft to cancel its con-
with continually improving crosoft and Google have progressive culture has "many avenues for all voic- tract with ICE, CEO Satya
AI. protested their companies' been hit hard by the tech es to be heard." Nadella clarified that the
O'Sullivan, 34, considers ties to Customs and Border boom's housing affordabil- A Google spokesperson did company was not contrib-
herself part of a "growing Protection, ICE and the mili- ity crisis. not comment on specific uting to family separations
backlash against unethical tary. "There's a lot of power (that) incidents but emphasized at the border but support-
tech," a groundswell in the Despite six-figure salaries people are being asked to that retaliation is prohibited ing email, calendar and
past two years in which U.S. and unlimited vacation build for the shareholders and pointed to CEO Sun- document systems.
tech employees have tried time, many tech workers of these companies and dar Pichai's previous state- A Salesforce spokesperson
to remake the industry from are questioning the effects the management of these ments on worker dissent. said conversations with
the inside out — pushing of their work and joining companies," said Ian Bush- "There are many things employees led the com-
for more control over how forces with their more pre- er, 28, a former contract good about giving employ- pany to create the Office
their work is used and urg- carious blue-collar, service analyst for Google and an ees a lot of voice," he said of Ethical and Humane Use
ing better conditions, job and contract-worker coun- organizer with the Bay Area at a November confer- of Technology and "hire a
security and wages for af- terparts, pressing for better chapter of Democratic So- ence. "There are decisions chief ethical and humane
filiated workers. work conditions and pay. cialists of America. "If you we make which they may use officer to develop
While some speak out and "It's unprecedented, both want to make the world a not agree with." guidelines and evaluate
others sign petitions and at- the magnitude of the pow- better place, you should Congress has begun to ag- situations around the ethi-
tend rallies, workers are col- er of these companies and exercise judgment and de- gressively scrutinize the in- cal use and development
lectively taking action like the willingness of white- mocracy with the people dustry in recent years, and of our technology."q