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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: 2) by corey on Thursday April 05 2018, @09:53PM (1 child)
Maybe I'm wrong but as I have lived through the internet age, Goodle didn't 'steer' the internet.
The issue isn't that Google will be building weapons, rather that it play a part in improving their accuracy. I keep hearing about innocents being killed in US attacks in the ME, maybe Google employees could see this as a way to save these lives? By doing this protesting, they won't affect the number of bombs dropped.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Friday April 06 2018, @07:47PM
They did own Boston Dynamics which started building robots for the military. Everyone thought it was scary Google was working with the military on robots. Okay so they sold them off. Now they're using this for supposed "good" by improving accuracy. Accuracy improvement means they can now plan more attacks with greater precision as they have reduced collateral damage. So google is making it easier to kill more unwanted people. You have to take the good with the bad.