SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Google Employees Resign in Protest Against Pentagon Contract
It's been nearly three months since many Google employees—and the public—learned about the company's decision to provide artificial intelligence to a controversial military pilot program known as Project Maven, which aims to speed up analysis of drone footage by automatically classifying images of objects and people. Now, about a dozen Google employees are resigning in protest over the company's continued involvement in Maven.
[...] The employees who are resigning in protest, several of whom discussed their decision to leave with Gizmodo, say that executives have become less transparent with their workforce about controversial business decisions and seem less interested in listening to workers' objections than they once did. In the case of Maven, Google is helping the Defense Department implement machine learning to classify images gathered by drones. But some employees believe humans, not algorithms, should be responsible for this sensitive and potentially lethal work—and that Google shouldn't be involved in military work at all.
Previously: Google vs Maven
Google Employees on Pentagon AI Algorithms: "Google Should Not be in the Business of War"
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 15 2018, @01:33AM (2 children)
There are employers with better projects to work on. Raytheon is a great example:
Want to work on robots? Raytheon makes a gun that aims and fires without human action.
How about a death ray? If you cranked to power a bit, Raytheon's active denial system could probably do the job. More power!
Do you like shooting planes from the sky? For that, there is the Patriot missile system.
Maybe a shoulder-fired missile with a top-down attack mode is more your style. Join the Javelin program.
Like cyberwar? You can do that.
You can also keep it traditional. Design bombs. Good old fashioned bombs can still be lots of fun.
...
That's just one awesome company. There is also General Dynamics, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin...
Or you could spend all day trying to track people to better target them with ads and keep them addicted. Your choice.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 15 2018, @01:59AM
When I was 19 I had great job working on tracking for ICBMs. Whomever is living in my parents old house better hope no one ever pushes that big, red, shiny button.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday May 15 2018, @06:48AM
Somewhere around Caltech.edu I found the statistics. A particularly large portion worked for General Dynamics.
That's traditional for Caltech: back in the sixties the students took no particular interest in the antiwar movement.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]