The New York Times reports that Google is “aggressively” pursuing a Pentagon contract, despite earlier employee protests. In order to “achieve supremacy in both traditional and non-traditional warfighting domains,” the DoD says Google’s Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability program has reallocated engineers from Google’s Cloud division.
The contract that Google is apparently considering is one that will allow numerous companies to submit proposals and perform work for it, and the Department of Defense thinks that it may be worth several billion dollars.
To be considered for a contract, cloud providers would be required to “allow access to essential warfighting data” at various classification levels, according to a Department of Defense paper outlining what they will be expected to do in the future (including Secret and Top Secret info).
In addition, candidates must be able to “offer advanced data analytics capabilities that securely enable data-driven and rapid decision-making at the tactical level,” according to the program’s requirements for participation.
Google claims to have guidelines in place for how it can utilise artificial intelligence in the military, laws that were put in place in response to employee resistance. According to reports published in 2018, Google was working on artificial intelligence technology to analyse video recorded by military drones as part of the Pentagon’s Project Maven project.
Workers at Google have written to CEO Sundar Pichai, expressing their displeasure with the company’s involvement in a conflict and arguing that it would put the company’s reputation at danger and violate its stated values. Eventually, the corporation caved down and announced that it would no longer be involved in the project.
Following Google’s announcement that it would terminate its Project Maven contract, the company released its AI ethics principles, promising that it would not work on artificial intelligence-powered weapons or AI surveillance projects that were likely to draw the ire of human rights or privacy advocates in the future. The corporation, on the other hand, stated that it will continue to collaborate with the military “in a variety of other sectors.”
Back then, Google said any work it pursued on behalf of the Pentagon must comply with the same set of standards. According to the Times, it is now unclear whether or not what the Department of Defense wants would be permitted under those standards.
Since its vow, Google has continued to engage with the military, with some projects utilising artificial intelligence. In August, the company announced that its Cloud services would be used by a contractor to analyse footage from inspection drones in order to determine when Navy ships required maintenance.
According to the New York Times, Google announced that its Cloud services would be used to determine when Navy ships required maintenance. The Air Force is also considering using Google Cloud to assist with the management of airplane repair.
It goes without saying that Google is open to doing military-related work, but given its past, it’s probable that employees will pay extra close attention when the company is considering doing business with the Pentagon.
The responses of Google employees to Project Maven served as a springboard for organisational development within the company; union activists identified it as one of the collective activities that spurred unionisation.
Google employees’ responses to Project Maven prompted unionisation. They have reacted angrily to the New York Times’ tweet about current work on the DoD bid.
