Google CEO Sundar Pichai has responded to a report that the company scaled back its diversity programs in order to avoid conservative backlash.- "We probably have more resources invested in diversity now than at any point in our history as a company," said the Google chief.
- A recent report claimed the company had pulled back its diversity programs after firing James Damore for publishing a memo about women in tech.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently sat down with The Verge for a wide-ranging interview, which covered everything from the company's COVID-19 response to its hardware strategy.
They also touched on NBC's recent report that Google had significantly scaled back its diversity and inclusion efforts in order to avoid conservative backlash.
When asked about the report, Pichai didn't directly address the programs being cut, but said that diversity is "a foundational value" for the company.
"Given the scale at which we build products and the fact we do it locally for our users, we are deeply committed to having that representation in our workforce," he said.
"What we are doing in the company is constantly at our scale. We look at that first — see what works, what we can scale up better. All I can say is we probably have more resources invested in diversity now than at any point in our history as a company, in terms of the scale and the resources we put in."
According to NBC's report, Google had ended three different diversity programs across the company, named Sojourn, DEI for Managers, and Allyship 101. Google told NBC that Sojourn, which taught employees about implicit racial bias, was stopped because the company was finding it difficult to scale the program globally.
But NBC spoke to several sources at the company who claimed Google dialed down its diversity programs to quell increased scrutiny from conservatives. According to the report, the company was concerned about the backlash after firing James Damore, the Google employee who wrote a memo implying women did not have the genetic predisposition for certain tech jobs.
When asked about whether Google was concerned about criticism from the conservative side of the aisle, Pichai said Google doesn't "bring any such lens" to its diversity efforts.
"There are many areas where we are still, as an industry, as a company, dramatically underrepresented," said the CEO. "So there's a long way for us to go. And we've just not had that consideration. I think, independently, just within the company, we have definitely made efforts to make sure the company can accommodate viewpoints, and no one feels they're not part of the company, regardless of their political viewpoints, amongst other things," Pichai said.
"But that's about it. I think these are two independent things."
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