The Pentagon has been forming new partnerships in Silicon Valley, but not everyone is on board. After it was revealed that Google was assisting the U.S. Defense Department in creating AI software for drone target recognition, in what was dubbed Project Maven, Google employees are speaking out. Thousands of them, including top engineers, have written an open letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, decrying the development of AI weapons. While Google has stated that Project Maven only works on defensive systems, not offensive ones, the signatories said: “Google should not be in the business of war.
You can read the full letter here.
AIWS is against the development of AI weapons. The risks of misuse, hacking, or loss of control pose too great of a threat to society. As such, such weapons should be banned and their development prohibited. We are calling on world leaders to adopt an international treaty to ban producing or using AI weapons.