Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

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

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday April 05 2018, @07:52PM (1 child)

    by frojack (1554) on Thursday April 05 2018, @07:52PM (#663079) Journal

    Sundar will have a hard time putting this to rest and spinning it in some positive light.

    Sundar will probably ignore it. That's not what I call a hard time.
    There's no point to have your CEO be attached to a chain every employee can jerk at will.
    You may remember the last guy who started writing memos.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday April 05 2018, @11:55PM

    by looorg (578) on Thursday April 05 2018, @11:55PM (#663187)

    That would be my guess to, but one clearly never knows these days. If only someone could find some employees that got their feelings hurt by this and see this letter as a sign of a hostile work environment, after all there are about 3100 hostiles and I doubt that many are working on the Maven project, this could result in much hilarity. There are 3100 people that want X others jobs to be terminated due to them not liking what they are doing and for whom (or what). That said I doubt that would happen since these people seem to have the "right opinions".