Google will give up a collaboration in artificial intelligence with the US Department of Defense, a contract that causes big stir among employees of the technology giant who signed a petition, according to US media Friday.
Google will give up a collaboration in artificial intelligence with the US Department of Defense, a contract that causes a stir among employees of the technological giant, according to US media Friday. A group leader told employees Friday that the contract with the Pentagon would not be renewed when it expires next year, according to the New York Times and the specialized website Gizmodo.
Asked, Google did not respond. Despite being evaluated by the press for less than $ 10 million, this contract - on which Google remains extremely discreet - has in recent weeks provoked the indignation of thousands of employees, believing that this collaboration with the military was contrary to the values of their business.
In mid-May, a petition launched in February to ask Google to stay out of the "trade of war" had gathered more than 4,000 signatures of employees while, according to the press, a dozen had threatened to resign, without the we know if they actually did. "We are asking that the Maven project be canceled and that Google write, make public and implement a clear policy saying that Google or its subcontractors will never build war technology," said the petition.
Specifically, the project focuses on drones and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to help them better distinguish humans from objects. For organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation "and the International Committee for the Control of Arms-Robots (ICRAC), this opens the way for the elimination of all human intervention in drone missions.
The US military, like other countries, uses drones (remotely controlled by humans) for reconnaissance, intelligence or bombing missions, for example in Afghanistan. Technology giants like Google, Microsoft or Amazon are on the run for a huge deal with the Pentagon, which wants to use the cloud computing. The contract is known by the acronym JEDI (Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure).
