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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
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tonyPick on Thursday April 05 2018, @03:17PM (1 child)
Individuals no ("cemeteries are filled with people who thought the world couldn’t get along without them.")
On the other hand even a few tens of engineers going out the door, if they're key people, can take enough institutional knowledge to be a problem for any company, and having them going out as a group to work for a direct competitor makes that impact worse. (See Waymo vs Uber for how far that can go.)
Will the Google staff go that far? Are these key people or easily replaceable dudebrocoders? No Idea, but even Google might not be able to tell everyone to "shut up and keep typing, or else" without risk. Keeping them happy might be better for the company, but unless you've got more information on who/what they'd lose and the value of the contracts, we're all just guessing here.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @07:26PM
Or are the people threatening to leave the gender-studies employees that do little actual work?