SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Following Worker Revolt, Google to End Drone Technology Contract with Pentagon
"Kudos to all the Google employees who forced the company's hand on this."
Jun 01, 2018
Following outcry from thousands of employees and the resignations of several over its work on drone and artificial intelligence (AI) technology with the U.S. military, Google announced Friday that it would not renew its contract on the Pentagon program known as Project Maven.
The project was meant to assist the Defense Department in analyzing drone footage in order to develop new kinds of drone technology.
The company's contract with the military will not be renewed after it runs out in 2019, said Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene at a meeting with employees. Google also plans to unveil new guidelines for its use of AI next week.
In a letter to executives, about 4,000 Google employees condemned the company in March for its participation in the project, writing, "Google should not be in the business of war...We cannot outsource the moral responsibility of our technologies to third parties."
While the backlash from employees appears to have cooled the company's relationship with the Pentagon, The Intercept's Lee Fang reports that Google "has not committed to forego signing other military contracts dealing with artificial intelligence, according to multiple people with knowledge of the decision."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Following outcry from thousands of employees and the resignations of several over its work on drone and artificial intelligence (AI) technology with the U.S. military, Google announced Friday that it would not renew its contract on the Pentagon program known as Project Maven.
The project was meant to assist the Defense Department in analyzing drone footage in order to develop new kinds of drone technology.
The company's contract with the military will not be renewed after it runs out in 2019, said Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene at a meeting with employees. Google also plans to unveil new guidelines for its use of AI next week.
In a letter to executives, about 4,000 Google employees condemned the company in March for its participation in the project, writing, "Google should not be in the business of war...We cannot outsource the moral responsibility of our technologies to third parties."
While the backlash from employees appears to have cooled the company's relationship with the Pentagon, The Intercept's Lee Fang reports that Google "has not committed to forego signing other military contracts dealing with artificial intelligence, according to multiple people with knowledge of the decision."
Following outcry from thousands of employees and the resignations of several over its work on drone and artificial intelligence (AI) technology with the U.S. military, Google announced Friday that it would not renew its contract on the Pentagon program known as Project Maven.
The project was meant to assist the Defense Department in analyzing drone footage in order to develop new kinds of drone technology.
The company's contract with the military will not be renewed after it runs out in 2019, said Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene at a meeting with employees. Google also plans to unveil new guidelines for its use of AI next week.
In a letter to executives, about 4,000 Google employees condemned the company in March for its participation in the project, writing, "Google should not be in the business of war...We cannot outsource the moral responsibility of our technologies to third parties."
While the backlash from employees appears to have cooled the company's relationship with the Pentagon, The Intercept's Lee Fang reports that Google "has not committed to forego signing other military contracts dealing with artificial intelligence, according to multiple people with knowledge of the decision."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.