Google Employees in Stand Against Pentagon

A swathe of Google employees have signed a petition calling on chief executive Sundar Pichai to stop the company from aiding the Pentagon’s artificial intelligence project. Some 3,100 Googlers signed a letter to Pichai urging him to pull Google out of a project that could see AI tech used to analyze military videos captured by drones and help improve the precision of drone strikes, the Inquirer reported. The employees were outraged Google’s technology could be used by the Pentagon’s Project Maven to better identify both targets and civilians. “We believe that Google should not be in the business of war. Therefore we ask that Project Maven be canceled, and that Google draft, publicize and enforce a clear policy stating that neither Google nor its contractors will ever build warfare technology,” the letter implores. Google did not refer to the letter directly, but in a statement noted that Project Maven is meant to be used for non-offensive capabilities; that is putting a lot of trust in a US government with the rather inflammatory President Donald Trump at its helm.