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Google Won't Renew Contract for Project Maven, Pentagon Drone AI Imaging Program

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Re: Google Won't Renew Contract for Project Maven, Pentagon Drone AI Imaging Program

#21

Post by C50VGicCxmHC »

This will really hurt their enterprise cloud business. Google has shown to have a bunch of employees who will leak confidential discussions to the press and try to PR damage their employer. If you are a large company looking for a home, that is exactly the kind of environment you want to avoid.

In addition, many of the large US companies have a military component. Examples are GE, Boeing, United Technologies. How many of those companies want something like what happened with Maven to happen to them.

Finally, the success of this project will further embolden Google employees to use these same tactics of leaking and hurting Google's image in the future. Given how things progress, the next protest is likely to be about something that is even more gray area than Maven.

Re: Google Won't Renew Contract for Project Maven, Pentagon Drone AI Imaging Program

#22

Post by imbokodo »

C50VGicCxmHC wrote: post #21

This will really hurt their enterprise cloud business. Google has shown to have a bunch of employees who will leak confidential discussions to the press and try to PR damage their employer. If you are a large company looking for a home, that is exactly the kind of environment you want to avoid. In addition, many of the large US companies have a military component. Examples are GE, Boeing, United Technologies. How man…

You're correct that a corporation's biggest enemies are the workers who do all the work and create all the wealth of that corporation.

You're also correct that this is a victory for those workers and a defeat for the corporation.

Re: Google Won't Renew Contract for Project Maven, Pentagon Drone AI Imaging Program

#23

Post by C50VGicCxmHC »

imbokodo wrote: post #22
C50VGicCxmHC wrote: post #21

This will really hurt their enterprise cloud business. Google has shown to have a bunch of employees who will leak confidential discussions to the press and try to PR damage their employer. If you are a large company looking for a home, that is exactly the kind of environment you want to avoid. In addition, many of the large US companies have a military component. Examples are GE, Boeing, United Technologies. How man…

You're correct that a corporation's biggest enemies are the workers who do all the work and create all the wealth of that corporation. You're also correct that this is a victory for those workers and a defeat for the corporation.

In "moral crusades" like this, it is often a very vocal minority that dominates the discussion. I seriously doubt that it was a majority of Google employees who objected to this.

Re: Google Won't Renew Contract for Project Maven, Pentagon Drone AI Imaging Program

#25

Post by mkempe »

They are building real-time, total surveillance in support of automated killing by drones, supported by almost all of Google's existing commercial projects (Earth-wide mapping, detailed street maps, business directories, phone-tracked location...).

The NSA programs disclosed by Snowden seem childish by comparison.

Re: Google Won't Renew Contract for Project Maven, Pentagon Drone AI Imaging Program

#26

Post by vkou »

C50VGicCxmHC wrote: post #23
imbokodo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're correct that a corporation's biggest enemies are the workers who do all the work and create all the wealth of that corporation. You're also correct that this is a victory for those workers and a defeat for the corporation.

In "moral crusades" like this, it is often a very vocal minority that dominates the discussion. I seriously doubt that it was a majority of Google employees who objected to this.

Democracy is not a proxy for morality.

Not to mention that historically, moral progress tends to happen because of the unreasonableness of small groups of people. Demanding that people sit on their hands until they get 51% support for their cause, is asking that nothing ever get done.

Whomever started this project certainly did not poll the employee base, and establish 51% support of it.

Re: Google Won't Renew Contract for Project Maven, Pentagon Drone AI Imaging Program

#27

Post by ajross »

aregsar wrote: post #24

While there are good intentions here, what happens if China and Russia military get ahead of US military in this technology due to us limiting ourselves

That's where I am too. I mean, war stuff is bad, it kills people, and the US certainly isn't 100% trustworthy.

At the same time... there's a real don't-rock-the-boat problem here. The last 3/4 of a century of US military dominance has been notable for a decrease in military/para-military violence on an order that humanity literally has never seen. It's not zero for sure, it's not always just, we may not always be the good guys, but seriously: if you are a random person anywhere in the world, you are vastly less likely to be killed by someone's bullet than you were pre-WW2. And that's important.

A world without a dominant US military is a world with fewer US-driven injustices. That doesn't seem like a good bet to be a "better world", though.

Re: Google Won't Renew Contract for Project Maven, Pentagon Drone AI Imaging Program

#28

Post by tomohawk »

aregsar wrote: post #24

While there are good intentions here, what happens if China and Russia military get ahead of US military in this technology due to us limiting ourselves

Likely, the cabal of employees will continue to feel smug that they took the moral high ground by refusing to contribute to the national defense.

Re: Google Won't Renew Contract for Project Maven, Pentagon Drone AI Imaging Program

#29

Post by simion314 »

sqdbps wrote: post #5

Congrads google activists you have hurt your employer's business and business prospects and prevented your colleagues from working on really interesting AI applications relegating their life's work to sorting photo albums. Oh, and none of that will make a difference because a competitor of yours will pick up the slack and be in a position to offer really interesting work to attract and retain researchers.

>really interesting AI applications The AI academics and talented developers probably would find other domains more interesting then satellite surveillance and droning people.

Re: Google Won't Renew Contract for Project Maven, Pentagon Drone AI Imaging Program

#30

Post by pixelcloud »

C50VGicCxmHC wrote: post #23
imbokodo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're correct that a corporation's biggest enemies are the workers who do all the work and create all the wealth of that corporation. You're also correct that this is a victory for those workers and a defeat for the corporation.

In "moral crusades" like this, it is often a very vocal minority that dominates the discussion. I seriously doubt that it was a majority of Google employees who objected to this.

That is a great opinion and I can do that too!!

I seriously doubt the majority of Google Employees would support defense contracting.

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