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Google Forced to Cancel Contract with Pentagon: It is Staff that Run Big Companies NOT CEOs or Execs
by Julia Conley via lucy - CommonDreams Friday, Jun 1 2018, 11:10pm
international / prose / post

Following Worker Revolt, Google to End Drone Technology Contract with Pentagon

It is no secret that Google has a tight relationship with the murdering, criminal, CIA and other nefarious institutions. Nevertheless, a company staffed with determined employees is clearly able to shape its character and future. Full credit to All Google employees who forced the company to withdraw from its AI drone program with the mass murdering Pentagon. For pete's sake Google is supposed to be a benign search engine, not involved in censoring/backgrounding dissenting alternative news and other controversial sites or playing soldiers with the Pentagon. Hopefully Google worker responses to management become infectious and average people realise just who is in control of all companies private and public. Hooray for taken for granted but crucial workers everywhere!

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."

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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/06/01/following-worker-revolt-google-end-drone-technology-contract-pentagon