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.

Comments

"Don't be evil"

[cahuenga]

.... is the motto of Google's corporate code of conduct, first introduced around 2000. ...

Re:"Don't be evil"

[gnick]

Why is helping the DoD evil? Is everyone supporting the DoD evil?

Statement from Eric Schmidt

[tttonyyy]

“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.