[wwww4all]

Google hired these researchers to give them some basic facade of having concerns about AI ethics. They were supposed to write some nonsense papers and just act as shields when questions about AI ethics were raised.

When these people bit Google on the hand, Google got rid of them. Simple story.

Google is a monopoly and needs to be broken up under anti trust rules.

[likelyunlikely]

As sad as I think this reasoning is, I think it's true. Google wanted someone to shield them from scrutiny with some hand wavy papers, making them feel good about what they are doing (disrupting the market!11!1!), just as pharma pays studies to prove what they want. Those researched probably just didn't get the implicit agreement or requirement, that Google already did everything right and well. And obviously Google isn't racist or biased, and if they are, they are doing everything they can to combat that /s.