Google relinquishes its $ 10 billion contract offer with JEDI

Google has abandoned the competition for a crucial contract on cloud computing the Pentagon, valued at over $ 10 billion, confirms the company with Business Insider.

The news, which was originally reported by Bloomberg, was announced the same day the search giant announced the closure of the social network Google+, following announcements of a serious security breach. Just months after Google employees protested en masse against the company's work with the US military.

This $ 10 billion cloud-based contract, called Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI), will be awarded to create cloud services for the Department of Defense. Google claims to have chosen not to compete for the contract, believing that this work would contradict the principles of the company and that it might not hold all the necessary certifications.

"While we are working to help the US government with our cloud in many areas, we are not bidding for the JEDI contract because, first, we could not be assured that it would be consistent with our AI principles and Secondly, we determined that there were parts of the contract that were out of reach with the certifications of our current government, "said a Google spokesman.

Companies in the running for the contract must submit their bids by 12 October. As only one company will be awarded the contract, Amazon is considered the favorite. Several companies, including Oracle, IBM and Microsoft, were working together to oppose the win-win-all approach rather than splitting the contract between multiple vendors. Google, in particular, believes that it would be in the interest of the Pentagon to allow more clouds.

"If the JEDI contract had been opened to several suppliers, we would have presented a convincing solution for some parties," said a spokesman in a statement. "Google Cloud believes that a multi-cloud approach is in the interest of government agencies because it allows them to choose the right cloud for the right workload."

Earlier this year, a controversy broke out within Google regarding the company's participation in the Maven project, an effort to strengthen artificial intelligence for the Department of Defense to analyze video footage of drones, which could be used to target drone strikes.

In April, more than 4,000 Google employees signed a petition calling on the company to halt the Maven project and promise never to "build war technology." Some employees even resigned in protest.

In June, Google announced that it would not renew the contract after its expiration. The same month, he published a set of principles governing his work in the field of AI. Based on these principles, Google does not design or deploy AI that may cause harm to individuals, collect surveillance information that "violates internationally accepted standards" or violates international law and principles. human rights.

"We will continue our strategic work to help state, local and federal customers modernize their infrastructure and meet their basic needs," a Google spokeswoman said in a statement.

At the same time, Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently took meetings in Washington to try to reestablish the company's relations with the military in the midst of unrest among employees. President Donald Trump and his allies accuse society of falsifying the results of research at the expense of politically conservative sources.