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Google Is Helping the Pentagon Build AI for Drones (gizmodo.com)
Google has partnered with the United States Department of Defense to help the agency develop artificial intelligence for analyzing drone footage, a move that set off a firestorm among employees of the technology giant when they learned of Google's involvement, Gizmodo reported on Tuesday. From the report: Google's pilot project with the Defense Department's Project Maven, an effort to identify objects in drone footage, has not been previously reported, but it was discussed widely within the company last week when information about the project was shared on an internal mailing list, according to sources who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the project. Some Google employees were outraged that the company would offer resources to the military for surveillance technology involved in drone operations, sources said, while others argued that the project raised important ethical questions about the development and use of machine learning.
.... is the motto of Google's corporate code of conduct, first introduced around 2000. ...
I'm sure these snowflakes are happy that our near peer competitors are doing the same thing, and are happy to give an advantage to totalitarian regimes and genocidal terrorist organizations. I'm glad they sleep well at night spying on their fellow citizens, while hypocritically whining about spying on people who wish to destroy every political position they hold dear.
Google will then advertise to the survivors funeral services and flack jackets?
This is what it takes them to start questioning the ethics of what they're doing? The fact that what they do allows full on 1984 which is far worse than anything a drone could do wasn't enough, but now that it's being used on drones, now it's a problem? I remember at a time when Google said they only hired the best and brightest but apparently now they only hire idiots who can't see beyond the end of their nose.
They're not using AI to control drones, but to analyze all the imagery collected by them.
How is this different from, say, Facebook analyzing the photos you upload and picking out people that look like other people?
it is good for a [corporation]child to do as it's [evil] parents s
WAR IS BODY-POLITIC, not corporate. Seeing how U.S. Congress hasn't adjourned since U.S. bankruptcy in 1931, it has never politically declared war and all these skirmishes are nothing more than security agreements for international policing between foreign nations.
Automated Drones only improve the flow of commerce. oh shutup Amurmurica, go back to sleeep. [ps drive through an American residential neighborhood at midnight and count all the window curtains reflecting a BSOD from the TV.]
I'member
“There’s a general concern in the tech community of somehow the military-industrial complex using their stuff to kill people incorrectly”
If there's ever a sentence where one word changes the entire context of a statement, it's that one - and the last word.
That word is redundant from the perspective of the tech community, but extraordinarily menacing when tacked on to the statement like that.
Don't be evil. Incorrectly.
biopowered.co.uk - catalytically cracking triglycerides for home automotive use since 2008. Just say no to big oil!
The fact is, early warfare involved enslaving the men and raping the women. It was focused on the people one was attacking.
Later came wide-area bombing of industrial areas and strategic targets such as bridges, trying to destroy the enemy's ability to wage war against you.
Indiscriminate bombing ala WWII is now illegal under international law. Developed nations recently begun to wage war by sending laser-guided bombs to destroy a particular part of a building which is militarily important, perhaps targeting an single room. The US often notifies civilians ahead of time to stay clear of the area.
The new way to wage war, currently being developed as the first "cold" wars are fought this way, is to send packets to your enemy's servers and try to make their computers stop working right.
The trend line is very much AWAY from "guns/bombs into a combat area, and the killing anyone resisting". Indeed over the last 50 years military doctrine in the west has been that a long-term win requires changing the "hearts and minds" of the populace in the opposing country, "winning them over". Killing is minimized. The thinking over the last 50 years is that the more of your enemy your kill, the more they'll be seeking and getting revenge later. So better to take out their military capability, then immediately start building schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure to make them your friends.
The history of the US vs Germany and Japan indicates it may in fact be possible, and even more effective, to win by ending the war as quickly as possible by destroying their ability to fight *even at the cost of civilian lives in the short term*. Then make friends with them the best you can. Massive force which causes the enemy to quickly stop trying to fight may in the end up costing fewer lives than trying to carefully and slowly pick off military targets without hurting civilians, resulting in a decade-long war. Precision strikes are, and have been, the trend, though.
There are many Non-lethal uses of drones.
Tracking fires. Monitoring traffic. Surveying sites. Construction inspection. Search and rescue. Hundreds more uses that don't involve explosives.
Take just about any job that used to require a Helicopter can now be done by drone more cheaply.
- Sir! there's a missile coming in!
- Fire our Google Enhanced countermeasures, soldier!
(drone plays advertisement before launch)
* * * No Carrier * * *
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
Look, princess .. if you haven't figured out by now that Google exists to collect the personal information of people, and convert that into money, you're a fucking idiot.
Google is a fucking ad company whose money comes from collecting information about people. Don't fucking pretend this is somehow different.
Google has long since passed the point where they get to claim "do no evil" still applies. You are in the business of surveillance, you just don't like to admit it.
The U.S. government is, by some measures, the most violent government on earth. United States taxpayers pay for more than 740 U.S. military bases and offices.
The effect of the U.S. government's invasion of Iraq was destroy the Iraq government, so that there could be more war. Now Iraq is no longer a managed country, and is destroyed as a society.
U.S. taxpayers pay "... expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest".
Some people want to kill other people. If you are a U.S. citizen, are you comfortable taking money from your bank account to pay for killing other people and destroying their property? Some of the money that is taken from you is taken using inflation.
The founders of Google are Jews. Some Jews like the fact that the U.S. government defends Israel, and those who aren't Jews pay most of the cost. That is a pro-Jewish comment: It helps people understand one of the ways in which the Jewish culture is self-destructive. Maybe that understanding will help people of the Jewish culture stop being self-destructive.
All war is negative and evil but the truth is that we are forced to live with wars just as our ancestors were. If an enemy creates or improves an element of war that you do not have you will be defeated. If there are AI drones on this planet we must be certain that we have the best drones and more drones deployed than an enemy. We can only hope that the drones will be sophisticated enough to eliminate more death of non combatants than current equipment. Think what would have happened if we did not have the first atomic bombs.
Mar. 5, Juche 107 (2018) Monday
Heightened Vigilance Should Be Kept
against Imperialists' Break-up Strategy
The imperialist reactionary forces are making desperate efforts to stop the independent forces from growing stronger and maintain domination. To this end, they are attaching big significance to the strategy of dividing countries and nations desirous of independence and estranging them from each other as well as means of military coercion.
The situation requires all the countries and nations desirous of new independent world to heighten vigilance against the moves of the imperialists and turn out in action to foil them.
The imperialists are the enemy common to the world progressives struggling for independence and peace, and they are the main target that the world progressives should struggle against by their concerted efforts irrespective of ism, religious belief, nation and race.
Countries and nations desirous of independence and justice should oppose and reject the outsiders' intervention and domination and struggle against the imperialists by pooling efforts.
No illusion should be harbored about the imperialists.
History eloquently proves that only when non-aligned and developing countries build their own strength and intensify south-south cooperation, can they defend political independence and achieve self-sustenance in economy.
The DPRK has closely cooperated with non-aligned and developing countries in the struggle for independence, peace and international justice against imperialism.
Immutable is the stand of the DPRK to foil the imperialists' aggression war moves and firmly defend the world peace and security in firm unity with the world progressive people advocating independence.
Ri Hak Nam
nothing beats it. Seriously, you'll never meet a company that'll turn down a contract from the Pentagon.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Government is one of Google's largest customers.
2016: Regina E. Dugan Regina Dugan—the former head of Darpa who was running the Advanced Technologies and Projects lab at Google—has left the internet giant to take up a similar post at rival Facebook. https://www.wired.com/2016/04/regina-dugan-leaves-google-for-facebook
Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, will head a new Pentagon advisory board aimed at bringing Silicon Valley innovation and best practices to the U.S. military, Those Google employees are living in the dark.
They changed it either right before or during the Alphabet Corp changeover.
There were jokes at the time that they were just preparing for their inclusion as a TLA.... not so funny anymore, is it?
I agree, american imperialist crapitalist scum is terrorizing other nations.
Don't you just LOVE being free? Of course, you're being watched 24/7
Seems like a reasonable name for an airborne drone network, doesn't it?
Google is a good partner though, they'll be able to cross reference weddings in countries with brown people with greater ease and targeting through pulling data from people's calendars. So should work well.
As I'm sure Official Google Asshole Shawn Willden would concur with me, I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you, that such an upstanding outfit as Google would stoop to assist anyone with surveillance technology...
If the facts support a certain conclusion, you can present the facts and people can see the clear conclusion.
When you wish to advance a conclusion that is not supported by the facts, you must instead make vague, misleading references that somewhat sound like you're referencing facts, then state the conclusion you want people to draw from your misrepresentations.
You have presented vague, misleading statements which imply the opposite of the actual facts. One can only conclude that this is because you couldn't find any actual facts which support your agenda. Therefore we can conclude that your premise is unsupported by facts and is false.
Why does this reminded me of this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CYvjjOwcWQ
I'm writing about urban warfare on a /. thread, and can't come up with something better with tons of citations (which could be citations of opinion pieces too)
Perhaps when fighting jihadis in urban warfare in a huge town you'll kill 10,000 civilians anyway, with our current technological abilities.
The trend line is very much AWAY from "guns/bombs into a combat area, and the killing anyone resisting".
You may be right mind you. It still goes horribly when the adversary won't surrender, fights to the end, shoots or executes fleeing civilians.Something like Berlin, April 1945. I must admit I'm not exactly qualified to solve that type of urban warfare . But smart bombs followed by flowers and candy don't work really great yet.
thanks for answering
I could highlight the good points you made, and those I agree with. That's boring, though.
- The purpose of war is "to kill people and break things" until the other has had enough and capitulates.
It seems to me "kill people" and "break things" are methods to (probably indirectly) achieve some purpose. Perhaps the purpose is to discourage invasions and the direct method is removing Hussein's forces from Kuwait. Perhaps the purpose is to protect your own people from further attacks by the Japanese and the direct method is remove Japan's ability and willingness to attack. There is always some goal to be achieved. Perhaps the goal is a safer hemisphere, and the direct method is the removal of Noriega from power. Failing to clearly define and communicate the goal certainly hampers one's efforts.
Where do we report to to get our rectum microchips implanted? May as well get it over with.
Google is now complicit in war crimes of US government who will undoubtedly use these drones in all sorts of sick atrocities all over the world.
When they are helping The Hexagon.
At first, working with the DOD doesn't seem so bad until you approach the end of the project and realize that the system works. Then you realize you just created a weapon for the politicians that can sell it or use it on anyone they feel like. In the hands of the NSA under the guise of National Guard, those drones will be figuring you out.
You think just because Google is doing this it's something new or bad? The military has always worked with companies and universities to build advanced tech systems, including AI systems. This is nothing new. Why all of a sudden Google does it and it's news? I mean go to all the AI conferences and look at the papers and who funds them, It's all NSF, or DARPA or something government/military. Why do you think it's called the Military Industrial Complex.
Where do you think all the self driving cars and system came from? Military funding.
I worked on the Unmanned Ground Vehicle systems and we built the foundations for all of this, and that was 20 years ago. We used Neural Network road following and cooperative robotics and all that stuff. And the robotics could be vehicles and drones.
So its no surprise that Google is working on building this stuff and then going to take advantage of the results to build their own systems. Google is a company trying to make money, just like Northrop Grumman or Space X does in building rockets for the Military.