Project "Maven" - Participation of Google in US drone assassination program

Leaked Emails Show Google Expected Lucrative Military Drone AI Work to Grow Exponentially - june 2018
https://theintercept.com/2018/05/31/google-leaked-emails-drone-ai-pentagon-lucrative/ The contract was “only” for $9 million, according to the New York Times, a relatively minor project for such a large company. The Intercept tell a different story... Google’s business development arm expected the military drone artificial intelligence revenue to ramp up from an initial $15 million to an eventual $250 million per year.

In fact, one month after news of the contract broke, the Pentagon allocated an additional $100 million to Project Maven.

How a Pentagon Contract Became an Identity Crisis for Google - The New York Times - may 2018
https://nytimes.com/2018/05/30/technology/google-project-maven-pentagon.html The internal debate over Maven, viewed by both supporters and opponents as opening the door to much bigger defense contracts, generated a petition signed by about 4,000 employees who demanded “a clear policy stating that neither Google nor its contractors will ever build warfare technology.

../.. The clash inside Google was sparked by the possibility that the Maven work might be used for lethal drone targeting. And the discussion is made more urgent by the fact that artificial intelligence, one of Google’s strengths, is expected to play an increasingly central role in warfare.../...

Google Is Helping the Pentagon Build AI for Drones - Gizmodo - March 2018
https://gizmodo.com/google-is-helping-the-pentagon-build-ai-for-drones-1823464533 "Google has partnered with the United States Department of Defense to help the agency develop artificial intelligence for analyzing drone footage, a move that set off a firestorm among employees of the technology giant when they learned of Google’s involvement. ../.. Google’s pilot project with the Defense Department’s Project Maven, an effort to identify objects in drone footage, has not been previously reported, but it was discussed widely within the company last week when information about the project was shared on an internal mailing list, according to sources who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the project. Some Google employees were outraged that the company would offer resources to the military for surveillance technology involved in drone operations, sources said, while others argued that the project raised important ethical questions about the development and use of machine learning. .../... Schmidt, who stepped down as executive chairman of Google parent company Alphabet last month, chairs [Pentagon's] Defense Innovation Board. "

Google’s AI is being used by US military drone programme - The Guardian - March 2018
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/07/google-ai-us-department-of-defense-military-drone-project-maven-tensorflow "'Google’s TensorFlow AI systems are being used by the US Department of Defense’s (DoD) Project Maven, which was established in July last year to use machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyse the vast amount of footage shot by US drones. The initial intention is to have AI analyse the video, detect objects of interest and flag them for a human analyst to review.'"

Disaster for humanity - RT - April 2018
https://www.rt.com/usa/423476-google-pentagon-drone-maven/ "Google own most of our data, and I don't want the Pentagon having my data." "Permitting machines to determine who or what to target on the battlefield, points to numerous problems, including ethical and legal."

Thousands of Google Employees Protest Company's Involvement in Pentagon AI Drone Programe - Gizmodo - April 2018
https://gizmodo.com/thousands-of-google-employees-protest-companys-involvem-1824988565 "A Department of Defense partnership has drawn ire from the Google’s employees, and thousands have now signed a petition urging CEO Sundar Pichai to shut it down." "We believe that Google should not be in the business of war. Therefore we ask that Project Maven be cancelled, and that Google draft, publicize and enforce a clear policy stating that neither Google nor its contractors will ever build warfare technology."