Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
A former employee at DeepMind, the Google-owned AI research lab, accuses the companyâs human resources department of intentionally delaying its response to her complaints about sexual misconduct in the workplace, as first reported by the Financial Times.
In an open letter posted to Medium, the former employee (who goes by Julia to protect her identity) says she was sexually harassed by a senior researcher for months while working at the London-based company. During this time, she was allegedly subject to numerous sexual propositions and inappropriate messages, including some that described past sexual violence against women and threats of self-harm.
Julia got in contact with the companyâs HR and grievance team as early as August 2019 to outline her interactions with the senior researcher, and she raised a formal complaint in December 2019. The researcher in question reportedly wasnât dismissed until October 2020. He faced no suspension and was even given a company award while HR was processing Juliaâs complaint, leaving Julia fearing for her â and her other female colleaguesâ â safety.
Although the Financial Timesâ report says her case wasnât fully resolved until seven months after she first reported the misconduct, Julia told The Verge that the whole process actually took 10 months. She claims DeepMindâs communications team used âsemanticsâ to âpush backâ on the Financial Timesâ story and shorten the amount of time it took to address her case.
âIt was in fact 10 months, they [DeepMind] argued it was âonlyâ 7 because thatâs when the appeal finished, though the disciplinary hearing took another 2 months, and involved more rounds of interviews for me,â Julia said. âMy point stands: whether it was 10 months or 7, it was far, far too long.â
Besides believing her case was âintentionally dragged out,â Julia also takes issue with DeepMindâs nondisclosure policy, which barred her from talking about her complaint to other employees or managers. She claims two separate HR managers told her she would face âdisciplinary actionâ if she spoke out about it. Juliaâs manager allegedly required her to attend meetings with the senior researcher, despite being âpartiallyâ aware of her report, the Financial Times says.
In a separate post on Medium, Julia and others offered several suggestions as to how Alphabet (Google and DeepMindâs parent company) can improve its response to complaints and reported issues, such as doing away with the NDA policy for victims and setting a strict two-month time limit for HR to resolve grievances.
The Alphabet Workers Union also expressed support for Julia in a tweet, noting: âThe NDAs we sign should never be used to silence victims of harassment or workplace abuse. Alphabet should have a global policy against this.â
In a statement to The Verge, DeepMind interim head of communications Laura Anderson acknowledged the struggles Julia went through but avoided taking accountability for her experiences. âDeepMind takes all allegations of workplace misconduct extremely seriously and we place our employeesâ safety at the core of any actions we take,â Anderson said. âThe allegations were investigated thoroughly, and the individual who was investigated for misconduct was dismissed without any severance payments… Weâre sorry that our former employee experienced what they did and we recognise that they found the process difficult.â
DeepMind has faced concerns over its treatment of employees in the past. In 2019, a Bloomberg report said DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, also known as âMoose,â was placed on administrative leave for the controversy surrounding some of his projects. Suleyman left the company later that year to join Google. In 2021, a Wall Street Journal report revealed that Suleyman was deprived of management duties in 2019 for allegedly bullying staff members. Google also launched an investigation into his behavior at the time, but it never made its findings public.
âIf anyone finds themselves in a similar situation: first, right now, before anything bad happens, join a union,â Julia said in response to the broader concerns. âThen if something bad happens: Document everything. Know your rights. Donât let them drag it out. Stay vocal. These stories are real, they are happening to your colleagues.â