[ad_1]
The Google general manager defended his company's plan to explore a custom search engine for users in China, despite concerns that would imply compliance with the country's strict Internet censorship.
Sundar Pichai said his arrival in China was to some extent consistent with the company's mission of providing information to the world's population, since a fifth of these people live in China. Even by complying with Chinese censors, he said, Google would be able to provide search results to over 99% of queries and, in some cases, more useful results than those currently obtained by search engines. local research.
The comments, during a live interview on Monday at a conference on Wired Technology in San Francisco, followed up reports several weeks ago on Google's secret Google research project in China, which sparked a brutal reaction from human rights defenders and Washington lawmakers, who warn the regime.
Google, a unit of
Alphabet
Inc.
its own employees are also encouraged to work only in accordance with the company's values. In August, hundreds of employees signed a letter asking Google to give voice to grassroots employees in the ethical review process and allow them to not work on certain projects.
In 2010, Google decided to remove its search engine from China to protest against government censorship and hacking attempts by Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Google co-founder Sergey Brin then described the government as having the "characteristics of totalitarianism" of the Soviet Union, where he was born.
The decision to enter China "weighs heavily on us," said Pichai. As Google expands to new countries, "we are always balancing a set of values, we provide users with access to information, freedom of expression, privacy and confidentiality." users, but we also respect the rule of law in each country ".
The Chinese search engine projects are still "very early" and the company is not committed to going ahead with them, he said.
The pressure from Google employees has prevented the company from announcing this year its decision not to renew a contract with the Department of Defense to help the US government identify targeting images by drones. The objections of employees to this effort, called "Project Maven", also prompted the company to adopt a new ethical review process guiding the deployment of artificial intelligence technology.
The decision sparked criticism from Amazon.com chief executive Jeff Bezos, who said at the same event Monday that technology executives should stick to their strategy, even when it is unpopular.
"If the big tech companies have to turn their backs on the US Department of Defense, our country will be in trouble," Bezos said.
Mr. Pichai, who was interviewed several hours after Mr. Bezos, downplayed the idea that the decision on the Maven project was made only on the basis of employee comments. He added that Google had also listened to experts in ethics and artificial intelligence.
Google continues to work with the US military in areas such as cybersecurity, Pichai added.
The CEO of Google will probably be confronted again with these problems in Washington, where he has agreed to testify before the Congress in the coming weeks. Lawmakers asked Mr. Pichai questions about China and the Maven project, as well as the company's decision not to inform users of a security breach exposing half a million personal data. users.
Published in the print edition of October 16, 2018 under the name "Google Defends Chinese Search Plan".
[ad_2]Source link
