zlacker

Yes, I googled Meredith Whittaker before commenting. She joined Google in 2006 after getting a bachelor's degree from Berkeley, apparently in literature and psychoanalytic theory. By 2012 she appears to have been a program manager in initiatives regarding internet measurements. So far I haven't found any references to products or reports from the Open Research Group, which she appears to have founded sometime prior to the 2016 White House conference where she met the other co-founder of the AI Now Institute at NYU.

Typically when you see someone engaged in "technology ethics" their professional career is based on limiting or stopping the technology, rather than building or advancing the technology. See, for example, stem cell ethics. Companies don't typically set up adversarial organizations within themselves. A more usual approach is to set up temporary "red teams" to address specific issues.

>>Merril+(OP)
I only know a little about it, but it seems like financial companies commonly have a permanent compliance department?

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/compliancedepartment.as...

>>skybri+S3
This is true, but the function of the compliance department is to ensure that the company operates within the boundaries set by law and regulation. They typically operate with the authority and access to top management. They would report incidents of non-compliance to management and much more rarely to a regulator, very rarely to the media. If members of the compliance department report to the regulators or public they are covered by the relevant whistleblower statutes. I can't recall members of the compliance department organizing other employees to demonstrate.

Another organization is the quality control department of a manufacturer. They also tend to report independently to top management, and they function similarly.