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posted by chromas on Thursday April 05 2018, @01:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the what-is-GOOG-good-for? dept.

We had submissions from two Soylentils concerning recent employee reaction to Google's participation in the Pentagon's "Project Maven" program:

Google Workers Urge C.E.O. to Pull Out of Pentagon A.I. Project

Submitted via IRC for fyngyrz

Thousands of Google employees, including dozens of senior engineers, have signed a letter protesting the company's involvement in a Pentagon program that uses artificial intelligence to interpret video imagery and could be used to improve the targeting of drone strikes.

The letter [pdf], which is circulating inside Google and has garnered more than 3,100 signatures, reflects a culture clash between Silicon Valley and the federal government that is likely to intensify as cutting-edge artificial intelligence is increasingly employed for military purposes.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/technology/google-letter-ceo-pentagon-project.html

Google Employees on Pentagon AI Algorithms: "Google Should Not be in the Business of War"

Thousands of Google employees have signed a letter protesting the development of "Project Maven", which would use machine learning algorithms to analyze footage from U.S. military drones:

Last month, it was announced that Google was offering its resources to the US Department of Defense for Project Maven, a research initiative to develop computer vision algorithms that can analyze drone footage. In response, more than 3,100 Google employees have signed a letter urging Google CEO Sundar Pichai to reevaluate the company's involvement, as "Google should not be in the business of war," as reported by The New York Times.

Work on Project Maven began last April, and while details on what Google is actually providing to the DOD are not clear, it is understood that it's a Pentagon research initiative for improved analysis of drone footage. In a press statement, a Google spokesperson confirmed that the company was giving the DOD access to its open-source TensorFlow software, used in machine learning applications that are capable of understanding the contents of photos.

Previously: Google vs Maven


Original Submission #1 Original Submission #2

 
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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @04:10PM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @04:10PM (#662988)

    Typical older generation. Thinks that you deserve your position of authority when the fact is that you're only where you are because the previous generation retired. Because you are thusly entitled, you believe your decisions are not just the law. You believe they are moral and just.

    A corporation is run by the people on the ground, not by the executives in their ivory tower. Corporations that forget this wither and die in relatively short order - not that their executives with their golden parachutes care one little bit.

    You may have constructed a crony capitalist market where the CEO and the board of directors have all the power. But do not mistake your legislatively fabricated corporate structures for moral justification. 3000 Google employees are Google. Sundar Pichai is not Google.

    The sad thing is that soon enough, you and Pichai will soon be retired, and while the oligarchs you defended live out their final years in stolen luxury you will be wasting away in an underfunded nursing home. They don't care for you, and neither does the next generation.

    We will be dancing on your grave, taking the mantle of authority you left when you retired. We will treat you and the generations to follow us as you have taught us to: like candy wrappers to be thrown out while we suck out the juicy profits inside.

    Don't you see? We will become like you, craven and soulless, stewards of a system that chews up its young and spits them out. Just like you became the craven and soulless generations you despised in your own youth.

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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday April 05 2018, @05:48PM (7 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday April 05 2018, @05:48PM (#663020) Journal

    You are just to funny. You believe your own words. Have you read no history at all? The "oligarchs" you talk about have existed from pre-history, and they will exist long after all of us here are forgotten. The oligarch changes form, from time to time. But the basics always remain the same.

    No, the 3000 employees at Google do not run Google. A handful of people who have won their positions through expertise, or luck, or subterfuge, or whatever methods run Google. You may blather on about who runs the system, but it's just meaningless noise. Shareholders, boardmembers, and CEO's collectively own, and run the company.

    Me? Defending the oligarch? You're smoking some weird shit, dude. I'm not "defending" them. I dislike them more and more as time goes on. Browse my posting history - you'll quickly learn that I despise each and every corporation that employs intrusive spying on citizens of the US, as well as citizens of the world. Defend Google? Defend the oligarch? You keep smoking that shit. Few other people here are going to buy it.

    BTW - I don't expect to retire. I fully expect to die like I've lived - in harness, and working my ass off. WTF do I want to spend a year, a decade, or more, lying around the house, with nothing to do? An empty, meaningless existence? Screw that. That shit is for some kind of snowflake, not for me.

    Requiem

    Under the wide and starry sky
    Dig the grave and let me lie.
    Glad did I live and gladly die,
    And I laid me down with a will.

    This be the verse you grave for me;
    "Here he lies where he longed to be,
    Home is the sailor, home from sea,
    And the hunter home from the hill."

    Robert Louis Stevenson

    I'll give you this much: Generation, after generation, we do tend to follow the examples of our forebears. You recognize that much. What are the alternatives, after all? Would you become the Eloi, or would you become the Morlocks? Don't like that particular story? Try The Devourer by Liu Cixin

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by fyngyrz on Thursday April 05 2018, @06:35PM (6 children)

      by fyngyrz (6567) on Thursday April 05 2018, @06:35PM (#663039) Journal

      BTW - I don't expect to retire. I fully expect to die like I've lived - in harness, and working my ass off. WTF do I want to spend a year, a decade, or more, lying around the house, with nothing to do? An empty, meaningless existence? Screw that.

      Wow. Talk about "doing it wrong."

      If a retired person has nothing to do, that's entirely their choice, or fault – you absolutely do not need to be "in harness" to be busy and productive and happy. None of this has anything whatsoever to do with retirement. Retirement means you can freely choose what you will do within the bounds of your available resources, one of which is time, and which is now entirely yours to allocate. If you choose in such a way as to gift yourself with an "empty, meaningless existence", that's not a consequence of being retired: it's a consequence of your empty, meaningless choices.

      The only reason in the world for a retired person to spend time "lying around the house" is if they want to. You don't want to? Then don't, FFS.

      • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday April 05 2018, @07:00PM

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday April 05 2018, @07:00PM (#663053) Journal

        Volunteer work would not count as "in harness". A physically and mentally active volunteer gig could lead to you living longer [oregonstate.edu], meaning more expenses out of your retirement funds. But it would at least fulfill Runaway's desire to not live an empty, meaningless existence, perhaps moreso than working for "the Man".

        --
        [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday April 05 2018, @07:06PM (4 children)

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday April 05 2018, @07:06PM (#663057) Journal

        Uh-huh. I've seen a fair number of people retire. Precious few of them retain any real drive in life. Not for more than five years, anyway. Most of them just grow old, and wither away.

        • (Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday April 05 2018, @07:31PM

          by frojack (1554) on Thursday April 05 2018, @07:31PM (#663067) Journal

          Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

          Sorry, had to be said.

          --
          No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @07:34PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @07:34PM (#663069)

          That is because you were trained like rats in a lab. Want your money pellets? Run that wheel bitch!

          So when you are no longer needed you have no clue what to do with your life because you spent all your time and energy doing the corporate bidding.

        • (Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday April 05 2018, @09:00PM (1 child)

          by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Thursday April 05 2018, @09:00PM (#663103) Journal

          I've seen both sorts. Those who have no drive post-retirement do generally wither away. Those able to manufacture their own purposes in a satisfying way thrive. Everyone has the choice, though, regardless of their life circumstances - you can [almost] always find something useful to do with your life if you apply yourself.

          --
          This sig for rent.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 06 2018, @01:45AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 06 2018, @01:45AM (#663225)

            One prime example is former President Jimmy Carter, he seems to have had a very interesting retirement, so far.