[geofft]

If their goal is to promote savory behavior, isn't it beneficial to have an internal voice trying to guide the company's direction?

There is no shortage of engineers who would happily take a job at Google. If the folks raising concerns decided to all leave, isn't the net result that Google would operate much as it does today (maybe a little bit slower to get products to market) but without any internal check on its behavior?

And since the issue under dispute here is AI ethics, shouldn't we the non-Googlers want to make sure people willing to voice concern about unethical behavior remain at Google?

[pmoriarty]

"shouldn't we the non-Googlers want to make sure people willing to voice concern about unethical behavior remain at Google?"

That depends on whether they're actually effective. If their concerns are ignored and they're not able to effect change, then their presence at the company is useless as far as moving Google in an ethical direction is concerned.

[lr4444lr]

If they were serious about the strength of collective action, they could unionize. That due process would have protected a fired employee more than any petition.