Google dissolved the Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC), its external AI ethics advisory body, roughly ten days after forming it. The trigger was a petition signed by some 2,400 employees demanding the removal of Kay Coles James, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, from the council; the inclusion of a drone company executive had also revived concerns about military uses of AI, and one member had already resigned. Google said it had "become clear that in the current environment, ATEAC can't function as we wanted. So we're ending the council and going back to the drawing board." The episode exposed how hard it is for an AI company to design external oversight.