Samy Bengio, a former Google AI scientist who resigned after co-workers were fired, has been hired by Apple.

Samy Bengio, a former acclaimed AI scientist who quit in spite of Google's firing of two employees amid the ethics fallout, was recruited by Apple on Monday. Bengio left Google after the infamous dismissal of two female employees who responded to him, Timnit Gebru, co-founder of the company's ethical AI unit, and Margaret Mitchell, co-lead and co-founder of the same team. Google said it was restructuring the AI departments, according to several sources, and the fired staff voiced questions about Google's organisational diversity.

As Bengio exited the firm in defiance of Google’s decision, Gebru tweeted: "Finally thank you to Samy Bengio for creating space and cover for us to do this type of work. He protects me a lot behind the scenes.”

Apple Inc. said in a statement quoted by Bloomberg that it hired Bengio, who will head Apple's new AI research team and report to John Giannandrea, Apple's Senior Vice President of Machine Learning and AI Strategy. It goes on to say that the Canadian computer scientist has played a key role in developing deep-learning algorithms that will influence AI's future. Yoshua Bengio, Bengio's younger brother, is also an AI researcher at Universite de Montreal. Apple, on the other hand, has remained tight-lipped about Bengio's new position.

Google's 'deep learning AI' was a project on which I worked

Bengio, a key boss at Google Brain, declared his formal resignation on April 28, 2021, after investigating Google's firing of ethics researcher Gebru, whom the company reportedly ordered to quit after she submitted specifics of a retracted article. The former focused on algorithmic racism and data processing with the Ethical AI Team's strategic co-leader. Meanwhile, Margaret Mitchell, one of her coworkers, was fired for reportedly transferring computer files out of the corporate network. Bengio started at Google in 2007. He operated on Google's deep learning AI, as well as search and speech products.

“This is one of the most difficult emails I can think of sending to all of you: I have decided to leave Google in order to pursue other exciting opportunities,” read contents of Bengio's email to his Google research team, obtained by CNBC. “There’s no doubt that leaving this wonderful team is really difficult,” the former Google employee had said.