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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: 1, Insightful) by tftp on Thursday April 05 2018, @03:29PM (5 children)
Google made its own bed when it publicly announced that GOOG is a liberal company and since then confirmed their position by many signals. The recent attack on shooting videos (which is a perfectly legal pastime in many countries, including the USA) is just the latest example. And now... drumroll... the same company tells their carefully selected liberal workers to turn on a dime and start helping the military. No surprise that many googlers' brains short-circuited.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @05:38PM
Dunno why they didn't see it coming. Didn't they realize that being "liberal" in the USA means being a reactionary right-wing puppet of the CIA?
Don't really care if it's black folks or white folks they hate. They're pushing segregation and identity politics as distractions from the declining conditions of the working class as a whole. If those employees want to do something to thwart the CIA and protest the beginnings of World War 3, they should raise a stink about getting progressive and independent news sources relisted on Google News.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @07:35PM
But if attacking shooting videos is legal, what's the problem?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @10:57PM (2 children)
Funny how you used the word "attack". Your attempt at stoking paranoia to keep the firearms business at maximum profit. Taking away, or demonetizing, gun videos is not an attack. It is a statement that they are not going to contribute to the overabundance of firearms in the United States. Those videos still exist. They are not given a national platform via Youtube. That is it. Post them on the NRA web site, along with all the other gun paranoia crap. Thing is, you can't shoot people if there are no guns to do it. Instead the gun lobby keeps floating the alleged mental health problem. John Oliver put out a great video on that whole topic. I suggest people watch it.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday April 06 2018, @10:04AM
Statements can be attacks. I'm anti gun-nut, and I still view the youtube move as an attack. Some attacks are better or worse justified than others. If google is pushing a liberal agenda, then this attack is perfectly consistent with that. However, the letters and threatened walk-outs objecting to supporting the MIC are also perfectly consistent with the liberal hive-mindthey've been building, google really shouldn't be surprised. It tells me that deep down they're not liberal, they just want the veneer of it. Maybe liberals are happier working unpaid overtime than conservatives?
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1) by tftp on Monday April 09 2018, @11:51PM
An attack is an action, physical or verbal, that aims to injure an opponent. A statement is a message that conveys the opinion.
If Google wanted to send a message, they could add a comment to each gun video: "Googlers do not like shooting sports". That would be a statement. Pulling the switch is an unwelcome action, also known as an attack.