The New York Times/Daisuke Wakabayashi and Scott Shane: Google Will Not Renew Pentagon Contract That Upset Employees

The New York Times

Google Will Not Renew Pentagon Contract That Upset Employees
After employees protested, a Google executive said Friday that the company will not renew a contract to work on artificial intelligence with the Pentagon after it expires next year.CreditMichael Short/Bloomberg
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After employees protested, a Google executive said Friday that the company will not renew a contract to work on artificial intelligence with the Pentagon after it expires next year.CreditCreditMichael Short/Bloomberg

By Daisuke Wakabayashi and Scott Shane

    June 1, 2018

SAN FRANCISCO — Google, hoping to head off a rebellion by employees upset that the technology they were working on could be used for lethal purposes, will not renew a contract with the Pentagon for artificial intelligence work when a current deal expires next year.

Diane Greene, who is the head of the Google Cloud business that won a contract with the Pentagon’s Project Maven, said during a weekly meeting with employees on Friday that the company was backing away from its A.I. work with the military, according to a person familiar with the discussion but not permitted to speak publicly about it.

Google’s work with the Defense Department on the Maven program, which uses artificial intelligence to interpret video images and could be used to improve the targeting of drone strikes, roiled the internet giant’s work force. Many of the company’s top A.I. researchers, in particular, worried that the contract was the first step toward using the nascent technology in advanced weapons.

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