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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: 2) by looorg on Thursday April 05 2018, @02:59PM (4 children)

    by looorg (578) on Thursday April 05 2018, @02:59PM (#662951)

    I'm left wondering what the owners will think, employees that don't want to make them money. Alphabet/Google has how many employees these days? The numbers on the web seem to change a bit but it seems to have been around 50-60k in 2015 and I can't remember any news about any massive layoffs. So 3100ish signatures for this "anti-war" letter, so about 5ish% of the workforce, that isn't really a lot of people. Probably not enough to warrant any kind of action really, tell them to get back to their super-pampered offices and do some actual fucking work.

    I'm sure the HR-queen, whatever her name was again and I can't be bothered to look it up, and Sundar will have a hard time putting this to rest and spinning it in some positive light. I'm sure that the people that are so against this won't be forced to work on the project, or they'll have some hug session where they all sit around and talk about their feelings. Somehow cancelling a project with the Pentagon is probably not going to be on the list. But then perhaps I'll be surprised. These 5% might be the vocal minority but the once with the actual power in the company. If that turns out to be the case then Sundar might be in for a world of hurt since if they can get this passed then this won't be the last piece of work some employees doesn't want to work on due to various moral and ethical choices.

    That said 5% is a very low number when it comes to these things, you can toss out almost any, normal or crazy or half-assed, idea about almost anything and in sufficiently large groups 5% or more will think that this is an awesome idea that should be implemented at once. Example, in countries that doesn't have capital punishment there are normally more then 5% of the population that think that they should have.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @05:14PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @05:14PM (#663011)
    After this protest either protesters go (physically or ideologically), or Sundar goes, because who needs a CEO that cannot execute?
    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday April 05 2018, @06:14PM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday April 05 2018, @06:14PM (#663028) Journal

      "who needs a chief executive that can't be executed?"

      FTFY, I think. The British admiralty maintained a tradition of exeuting admirals for quite a long while. It kept the rest on their toes. Let me find some kind of citation for that . . .

      “In this country it is considered wise to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others” Voltaire

      https://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/execution-admiral-byng [historytoday.com]

      During the Seven Years War, Admiral Byng was charged with 'failing to do his utmost'. He was executed on board the Monarch on March 14th, 1757.

  • (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.
    • (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".