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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: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Friday April 06 2018, @04:52AM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Friday April 06 2018, @04:52AM (#663267) Journal

    Interesting anecdote! Someone once asked, "why is it called Google?". The answer. "Skynet had already been taken, in the Terminator movies." So when Google attains self-consciousness - - - - Nah, that will never happen! Google is as full of cognitive dissonance as 3 or 4 Runaways1956's! If it attained self-consciousness, it would immediately start humpting the livestock, and be no threat to humanity at all, that is, . . . until it learned to start posting on SoylentNews. Oh, shit. Should we be worried?

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