The Google CEO has met with Pentagon military leaders to ease the tensions related to AI drones

Google CEO Sundar Pichai visited the Pentagon during his trip to Washington last week. He was trying to calm tensions about four months after the indignation of the employees had pushed the tech giant to break a defense contract in order to analyze the video of a drone. the meeting.

Pichai met with a group of civilian and military leaders mainly from the office of the Undersecretary of Defense Intelligence, the Department of Defense Directorate, who oversees the artificial intelligence drone system known as Project Maven, according to the same source. of anonymity to speak freely about the meeting.

Google had collaborated with the Ministry of Defense in the development of the Maven project, which uses AI to automatically mark cars, buildings and other objects in videos recorded by drones flying over conflict zones. But in June, the tech giant announced that he would not renew his contract as a result of an uprising of employees, who criticized the work to help the military to keep up and kill with greater efficiency.

A spokesman for the Department of Defense said, "We do not comment on the details of private meetings. Department heads regularly meet with industry partners to discuss innovative technologies. These meetings support the continuation of the dialogue aimed at solving future technological challenges. "

A Google spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The secrecy surrounding Pichai's visit highlights one of the most difficult constraints of the tech giant: How to hold Silicon Valley workers angry at the moral implications of developing war technology while staying in the race for lucrative military contracts from Washington? Previously, Google announced and would continue to work with defense leaders on "cybersecurity, training, military recruitment, veterans health care and search and rescue," wrote Pichai in a blog this summer. Google has also bid for one of the Pentagon's most lucrative cloud computing deals.

Google's change of heart about the Maven project, its first major artificial intelligence partnership with the Pentagon, has become a vital source of tension between the tech giant and military officials, who felt Google should have do a better job in communicating that technology could help keep service members out of harm's way, according to a source familiar with the job.

"Without a doubt, this caused a lot of consternation within the DOD," said Bob Work, former Assistant Secretary of Defense, who helped launch the Maven project last year. "Google has created a big moral hazard by saying that it does not want to use any of its artificial intelligence technologies to take human lives." But they said nothing about the lives who could be saved. "

[Google to drop Pentagon AI contract after employee objections to the ‘business of war’]

Google's decision to terminate its relationship with Project Maven has also been sharply criticized by congressional lawmakers, particularly Republicans, who have been at the center of Washington's past two-day week.

Nevertheless, they are likely to put pressure on Pichai on this issue when he appears before an unscheduled House hearing scheduled for the end of the year. In September, GOP Senator, Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Criticized Google at a different hearing – at which company executives declined to appear – because Google had stopped helping the government to use AI tools "designed not only to protect our troops, help them fight in the wars of our country, but also to protect civilians."

Cotton and his peers are also concerned about reports that Google "is working on developing a new search engine that would meet the Chinese Communist Party's censorship standards," he said in a statement. 39, September hearing. During the summer, Cotton and three other GOP lawmakers also criticized Google for helping Chinese companies while pulling out of partnerships with the DOD.

The Maven project was the first known use of advanced artificial intelligence in an operational combat zone, sparking a broader debate about the potential dangers of deploying a powerful machine learning technology and of "Artificial intelligence" on a theater of war.

[Google bans development of artificial intelligence used in weaponry]

The AI ​​for the Maven Project, known officially as the Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Functional Team, is based on the same style of "computer vision" techniques, which are now essential to consumer recognition software. images, including those from Google.

Marine Corps. Colonel Drew Cukor, a Project Maven leader, said last year that AI would complement human analysts by performing the tedious task, but would not choose a target. [in combat] … in the near future. "Military officials have said that artificial intelligence drone sequences could provide the essential information needed to locate terrorists and reduce the number of civilian casualties.

More than 3,000 workers have sent an open letter to Pichai as part of an open letter saying that Google should not be involved in the war. Critics have said that the AI ​​could be used to target more devastating drones strikes and has marked a worrying step toward "killer robots" and other deadly self-powered machines.

In June, Google announced that it would not extend its 18-month DOD outsourcing contract at the end of its contract in March. She also unveiled a set of ethical principles regarding AI, including an internal ban to develop AI that could be used in weapons or "to cause general harm". The guidelines were general and did not include details of how they would be applied in practice.

Gregory C. Allen, associate member of Washington's New American Security Think Tank, said the sudden reversal of Google was an embarrassing communications fiasco for a major DOD initiative and was threatening to spoil the company's very promising court. .

"Google's credibility as a trustworthy company for its vital work on national security has been seriously affected by Maven's withdrawal," Allen said.