Whistleblower says DeepMind waited months to fire a researcher accused of sexual misconduct

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A former employee at DeepMind, the Google-owned AI research lab, accuses the company’s 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.

“Whether it was 10 months or 7, it was far, far too long.”

Julia got in contact with the...