Google employees protesting against Pentagon's own image recognition project

𝐀 𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐧𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫 𝐏𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐢 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨 𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐬.

A total of 3100 concerned employees signed the letter published by The New York Times. They are afraid that the technology will be used, for example, to carry out drone attacks in a more targeted manner. The Google employees believe that Google should not be involved in warfare and ask Pichai to cancel the so-called Project Maven.

Project Maven is characterized by the signatories as a 'customized ai surveillance engine' that uses wide area motion imagery from U.S. government departments to detect and track vehicles and other objects. The results are passed on to the US Department of Defense. As one of the parties involved in this project, Google is working on part of the technology.

Google's top woman, Diana Greene, said earlier that the technology is not directly used to make drones fly or fire weapons, but that it would be used to mark video material, which could then be analysed by humans. According to the concerned Google employees, the technology is delivered to the army and can still be used there directly for military tasks.

The group also wants Google to pursue a policy of 'never building war technology'. It is believed that this project damages Google's reputation, referring in the letter to the growing concerns about autonomous weapon systems in which ai plays a crucial role. According to the signatories, this project makes Google comparable to weapon manufacturers such as Raytheon and General Dynamics.