A significant change of direction announced by Google in the field of artificial intelligence . Which marks an important turning point in the ethical policies of the Mountain View company. The technology giant has in fact eliminated some key promises that limited the development of potentially dangerous technologies.
Until recently, Google explicitly committed not to develop AI for “weapons or other technologies whose primary purpose is to directly cause or facilitate harm to people .” The company also refrained from developing “technologies that collect or use information for surveillance in violation of accepted international norms.” These commitments have now been removed from the company’s principles.
This is a marked reversal from its 2018 stance, when Google decided not to renew its “Project Maven” contract with the U.S. government. A project that involved analyzing drone surveillance. At the time, the company also withdrew from a bid for a cloud contract with the Pentagon, citing concerns about its ethical standards.
This began to change in 2022 with “Project Nimbus,” when internal concerns emerged about Google Cloud services being used to facilitate human rights abuses. The company’s response was to ban employees from discussing political conflicts. Such as the Palestinian conflict, leading to mass protests and layoffs.
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said in a company blog post that “democracies should lead the way in AI.” That statement takes on particular nuance when read alongside Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar’s words that the AI arms race must be “a national effort that extends well beyond the Department of Defense to enable us to win as a nation.”
We can say without too much hesitation that the decision was driven by economic interests. Considering the huge government contracts at stake. The Department of Defense and the Pentagon are in fact extremely lucrative customers for technology companies. At this point, the prospect of using artificial intelligence for military purposes. Once relegated to science fiction, is becoming increasingly concrete.
Despite possible protests from users, who could express their dissent by abandoning Google services . The situation seems difficult to reverse. If google were to take a step back, other companies could easily take its place. Attracted by the considerable economic opportunities offered by government contracts.https://youtu.be/3IuUx33vNVg?si=K4IQOj1BMVeBmj2x