End of Project Maven

AI Weekly: The end of Project Maven at Google shows the power of tech workers who take a stand

Khari Johnson@kharijohnson June 1, 2018 4:47 PM

We’re roughly halfway through 2018, and one of the most important AI stories to emerge so far is Project Maven and its fallout at Google. The program to use AI to analyze drone video footage began last year, and this week we learned of the Pentagon’s plans to expand Maven and establish a Joint Artificial Intelligence Center.

We also learned that Google believed it would make hundreds of millions of dollars from participating in the Maven project and that Maven was reportedly tied directly to a cloud computing contract worth billions of dollars. Today, news broke that Google will discontinue its Maven contract when it expires next year. The company is reportedly drafting a military projects policy that is due out in the coming weeks. According to the New York Times, the policy will include a ban on projects related to autonomous weaponry.

………

Since Google’s involvement with Maven became public in March, the project has certainly attracted attention from some members of the press. I’ve written that Google should listen to its employees and stay out of the business of war and that Maven reflects the need for a Hippocratic oath for AI practitioners, but the backlash isn’t just coming from journalists.

The rest of the story is here.