A report from the Gizmodo technology website suggests that Google has partnered with the US Department of Defense to assist it in developing artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze drone footage. According to sources who spoke on conditions of anonymity, Google's involvement in the so-called Project Maven was not public, but was discussed inside the company when information about it was shared on an internal mailing list, sparking concern among employees. The same sources indicated that the employees of the tech giant were furious with the company's decision to offer resources to the military for surveillance technology involved in drone operations. "We have long worked with government agencies to provide technology solutions. This specific project is a pilot with the Department of Defense, to provide open source TensorFlow APIs that can assist in object recognition on unclassified data," a Google spokesperson told Gizmodo.

Google has confirmed that it is allowing the Pentagon to use some of its image recognition technologies as part of a military project. The disclosure follows a report by Gizmodo, which said the artificial intelligence tech was being used to analyse drone footage. The news site said that many of the search giant's workers only learned of the collaboration last week via internal emails. It added that some were "outraged". A spokeswoman for Google said that the tie-up involved the provision of software tools to let the US Department of Defense (DoD) make use of its TensorFlow machine learning code.

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As far as what the Pentagon wanted, it's not conceptually much different than what Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and half a hundred other companies want. Users create and upload enormous amounts of data. Corporations want to analyze that data to track and monetize users more efficiently. Since no set of human monitors could possibly track, tag, and analyze landmarks, human faces, and other objects or events caught on-camera as quickly as new data pours in, Silicon Valley is laser-focused on building algorithms that can handle the proverbial firehose. The Pentagon wanted some of that capability for itself and launched a new initiative to develop it, Project Maven, last year.

Google's artificial intelligence technologies are being used by the US military for one of its drone projects, causing controversy both inside and outside the company. Google's TensorFlow AI systems are being used by the US Department of Defense's (DoD) Project Maven, which was established in July last year to use machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyse the vast amount of footage shot by US drones. The initial intention is to have AI analyse the video, detect objects of interest and flag them for a human analyst to review. Drew Cukor, chief of the DoD's Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Function Team, said in July: "People and computers will work symbiotically to increase the ability of weapon systems to detect objects. Eventually we hope that one analyst will be able to do twice as much work, potentially three times as much, as they're doing now. Project Maven forms part of the $7.4bn spent on AI and data processing by the DoD, and has seen the Pentagon partner with various academics and experts in the field of AI and data processing. It has reportedly already been put into use against Islamic State. A Google spokesperson said: "This specific project is a pilot with the Department of Defense, to provide open source TensorFlow APIs that can assist in object recognition on unclassified data.

It's possible to track, take control of or take down drones using their radio-control signals, but wiretapping rules and aviation regulations prevent law enforcement from using current tools to do so, according to the official. The news emerged during the FAA's third annual Unmanned Aircraft Systems Symposium in Baltimore this week. While it's unclear whether the White House proposal was discussed at the UAV event, Bloomberg noted that the FAA is drafting new regulations that force some (if not all) smaller consumer drones to broadcast their identity and location for law enforcement purposes. At the end of the year, Trump signed a law that revived the FAA requirement for small UAV registration; Yet two months before that, he'd announced a new pilot program that would exempt companies and local governments from some FAA regulations.

Google is helping the military use artificial intelligence to analyze video from drones to more quickly identify objects like trucks. The deal is part of the Defense Department's Project Maven initiative to use technology and automation to sift through huge amounts of data, according to tech publication Gizmodo, which reported on the partnership on Tuesday. A Google (goog) spokesperson confirmed to Fortune that the search giant is working with the Defense Department and said that the company has "long worked with government agencies to provide technology solutions." The spokesperson added that Google's technology "flags images for human review, and is for non-offensive uses only." Anonymous Google employees expressed concern in the Gizmodo article that Google is helping the U.S. government improve drone surveillance operations and that the project highlights "important ethical questions about the development and use of machine learning."

According to Gizmodo sources, some Google staffers were "outraged" that the company would contribute AI tech for drone operations. Others, meanwhile, said it prompted ethical questions about the subjects machine learning should cover. This doesn't involve killer robots, but it may be uncomfortably close for some. A tipster for The Verge added that Google was helping the military configure TensorFlow for use, although it's not clear whether that's active development or just the basic setup process. The Defense Department has declined to comment on whether or not Google is its only partner in Project Maven.

Google is offering resources to the US Department of Defense for a "pilot project" to analyze drone footage using artificial intelligence. The collaboration was first reported in a story by Gizmodo, which noted that some Google employees had been "outraged" by the news after it was shared in an internal mailing list last week. Details regarding what Google is actually providing to the DOD are not clear, but we know the work is part of Project Maven -- a Pentagon research initiative to develop computer vision that can better understand video footage. Such technology could have a range of uses in the military, including helping to surveil and track targets using drones and providing the brains for static CCTV cameras in military camps and bases. Technology of this sort can be used to recognize basic objects, like cars and people, but has trouble analyzing complex scenes.

The Pentagon may have gained a new, high-profile partner for its sophisticated AI system used to hunt for militants in Iraq and Syria. Silicon Valley giant Google is working with the Department of Defense to develop advanced artificial intelligence for analyzing drone footage, Gizmodo reported, citing sources close to the situation. The partnership centers around Project Maven, which is the codename for a system that analyzes aerial surveillance video to look for patterns that can military intelligence analysts. And it seems some Google employees aren't happy with the move. The Department of Defense announced Project Maven last April, which was tasked with identifying objects and people in drone footage.