Google offers conservatives an olive branch

Former Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, for instance, complained that content favoring President Trump had been tagged as hate speech. Rep. Steve Chabot of Ohio wondered why positive coverage of the GOP-led tax overhaul was buried behind four pages of criticism. Rep. Louie Gohmert, also of Texas, said Pichai was so overwhelmed by liberal influences that he was in the position of a blind person who couldn’t distinguish light from darkness.

Pichai countered their arguments over and over. Google’s business, he said, is built on delivering accurate and fair results. “It is in our interests to make sure we reflect what’s happening out there in the best manner possible,” he told the Republicans. “We do it without regard to political ideology.”

Google’s decision this month to appoint Kay Coles James, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, to an eight-member panel advising the Mountain View, Calif.-based company on ethical use of artificial intelligence backs up his point.

Rather than abating claims of partisan favoritism, however, it drew them from a different source, pushing the company into the midst of a heated debate over gay and transgender rights.

Within days of the announcement, a group calling itself Googlers Against Transphobia and Hate, claiming to represent 1,800 employees, posted an open letter on the website Medium describing James as “vocally anti-trans, anti-LGBTQ and anti-immigrant.”

Citing Twitter posts in which James said the Democrat-backed Equality Act — which bans discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity — would “endanger parental rights and open every female bathroom and sports team to biological males” and claimed that powerful nations “are pressing for the radical redefining of sex,” they called for her removal.

James’ comments reflect the position of the Heritage Foundation, which has argued the Equality Act would “penalize everyday Americans for their beliefs about marriage and biological sex.” It points to business owners such as Masterpiece Cakeshop’s Jack Phillips, who was sued after he refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple in Colorado, and Catholic hospitals in California and New Jersey that were taken to court when they wouldn’t perform hysterectomies on women seeking to change their gender to male.

Democrats, however, have rejected those claims. “There is still no explicit federal law that explicitly prohibits millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people being denied medical care, fired from their jobs, or thrown out of their homes simply because of who they are,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said during an April 2 hearing on the measure.

“We now have an opportunity to continue our march toward justice,” he added, “to enshrine in our nation’s laws protections for marginalized communities to ensure they can fully participate in key areas of life and to provide them recourse in the face of discrimination.”

The Heritage Foundation didn’t respond to a request for an interview with James, and Google didn’t answer messages seeking comment.

“Not only are James’ views counter to Google’s stated values, but they are directly counter to the project of ensuring that the development and application of AI prioritizes justice over profit,” the Google employees wrote.

“Such a project should instead place representatives from vulnerable communities at the center of decision-making,” the employees said. “The potential harms of AI are not evenly distributed, and follow historical patterns of discrimination and exclusion.”