Google Plans Not To Renew its Contract for Project Maven, a Controversial Drone AI Imaging Program (gizmodo.com) 59
Kate Konger, reporting for Gizmodo: Google will not seek another contract for its controversial work providing artificial intelligence to the U.S. Department of Defense for analyzing drone footage after its current contract expires. Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene announced the decision at a meeting with employees Friday morning, three sources told Gizmodo. The current contract expires in 2019 and there will not be a follow-up contract, Greene said. The meeting, dubbed Weather Report, is a weekly update on Google Cloud's business. Google would not choose to pursue Maven today because the backlash has been terrible for the company, Greene said, adding that the decision was made at a time when Google was more aggressively pursuing military work. The company plans to unveil new ethical principles about its use of AI next week.
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And we'll be here waiting to troll them here on slashdot!!!!!!
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Couldn't have said it better. Alphabet can create as many companies as it wants. Same people, different names.
But it won't be the same people. This new company can hire only people with the types moral attitudes that won't have a problem building military drone AI software.
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For the right $$ amount, there's never a shortage of folks that are more than willing to do it...
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Yeah, they’ll just open a contract under a different name and hide it better.
So? What is wrong with that?
The employees aren't objecting to the project being done, only to Google doing it. So if it is done under a different name, that solves the problem.
It is silly to expect a substantial solution to a "problem" that lacks substance.
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The employees aren't objecting to the project being done, only to Google doing it.
The employees are objecting to Google being a service to the defense of the country (at Google's profit).
These are not employees that ought to be listened to, and if they want to whine about it, then they ought to be sent out to find employment somewhere in the Gitmo.
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Which country? Google is a multi-national corporation, with headquarters in Dublin, with employees based in dozens of different countries. Many of their employees of all nationalities, and many of their customers of all nationalities, object to the idea of teaching machines to hunt and kill humans, even when it is abstracted to simply "target selection" (for now).
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Google is a multi-national corporation, with headquarters in Dublin, with employees based in dozens of different countries.
Google's founders are US-based. All the engineering and technical innovation to make Google what it is was done and continues to be done in the US. Google is a US organization that re-organized with a foreign HQ on paper only because various countries' tax laws makes the arrangement convenient to Google's shareholders for purposes of having the company avoid payment of taxes --
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What exactly do you think I meant by "target selection"?
Hell, the target selection is the hard part. Adding in the last bit of code to fire a missile or drop a bomb at a given target is relatively simple stuff that we've had for 50+ years.
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What exactly do you think I meant by "target selection"?
Not target selection; the work is unrelated to combat operation: not identifying "targets" in realtime - but analyzing data already aggregated and stored in the cloud. This is essentially equivalent to bulk analysis of batches of security camera footage --- they receive an enormous amount of video from their surveillance drones, so the volume of daily footage exceeds the ability of their humans to process the and find things of interest from t
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Yeah, they’ll just open a contract under a different name and hide it better.
The contract was probably turned over to a minority and woman owned small business set aside. So a shell company will come in, skim a bunch of cash off the top, and then subcontract the same work back to the same people at Google. But they won't be "directly" working for the government.
That's how it works in federal contracting.
I've written software for military drones. I wrote the system that Bradley Manning stole all the data from. I wrote a system that controls weapons exports. I've written software
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I would not be surprised if they will just hand over their research and do new stuff for the Chinese government in hopes they allow them back into their market. Companies, especially tech companies, tend not to really care about who is paying them, and what the technology is used for.
Samer, I didn't know you were going to... (Score:1)
be building SkyNet.
Do a good job, and you really can get the Syrians out of Lebanon. :)
Google's new project "MAESTRO" (Score:3, Insightful)
...which is all about drone-based AI assisted ... "package" ""delivery"".
I mean... I GUESS you could use this Death Ray as a weapon - but it's for PEACEFUL purposes - I swear
Re:Google's new project "MAESTRO" (Score:4, Funny)
thats project SANTA, cause we are thinking of the children...
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Bart Fargo Conquers the Martians
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Thought this might be a joke but it's modded "insightful".
Even when Google does the right thing, somehow they are still evil.
Of course not (Score:2, Interesting)
Standard government (and business) practice when a program experiences any adverse PR: end it as soon as possible and start it up under a new name.
I thought Maven was a software project tool... (Score:2)
Google might be the least objectionable choice... (Score:1, Troll)
Well I do not expect the Department of Defense to shrug, say "oh well..." and move along.
They will find a new partner (maybe Yahoo! Imaging or even Facebook) that might not do as well. Then when the resulting (inferior) AI decides a school bus is really an armored personnel carrier... What could possibly go wrong?
For a further example please refer to Apple maps.
need to hire directly (Score:3)
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You don't know how rare GS jobs and how much in demand they are. Knowing you have a paycheck, and are not going to get laid off because your PHB decided to replace you with a H-1B fresh off the boat is a nice thing.
Right now, the economy is booming (well, if you are in a coastal city or Austin... if not, the economy has been shit since 2008... but who cares about most of the US, as LA, SF, and NYC are more important), but come a recession, being able to know your mortgage or rent will be paid this month is
Good (Score:2, Insightful)
Google hires people based on skin color and genitals, which leaves them with subpar engineers. I know several of them, they're fucking nuts. You don't want them working on anything important or that needs to actually get finished.
Translation: Delivery planned until end of 2019 (Score:2)
If Google doesn't do it (Score:3)
irrelevant (Score:2, Insightful)
google can do it or not... it won't change anything.
its happening. If various corporate cultures want to special snowflake their way out of contracts that just leaves more opportunities for rival organizations.
yawn.
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First it isn't bad. The moral argument is comical.
Second the gesture is pointless as it will be developed either way.
Third given the reality of point 1 and 2, there is a better argument for this "gesture" being a moral evil rather than either moral good or even neutral.
its just shallow virtue signalling by nitwits.
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Sure... one guy is going to stop a global push to weaponize AI.
I'd ask if you were serious but either answer would be depressing in its own way.
Just leave it there. Nothing productive here.
Line in the Sand (Score:2)
In the meantime.... (Score:2)
My essay has gotten little attention: http://yuhongbao.blogspot.com/... [blogspot.com]
Even things like this (not covered in the essay) has been hard to find more info about: https://twitter.com/berendjanw... [twitter.com]