Google's decision to build AI for Pentagon drones divides company

The US Military is using artificial intelligence software developed by Google in one of its drone programmes, causing internal divisions over how the company should be run. The Department of Defense's Project Maven, commenced last April, utilises the Silicon Valley search giant's TensorFlow AI to analyse the hours of footage shot by unmanned planes. TensorFlow scans the film for objects of interest and flags them for human analysts with a view to further investigation. It has reportedly already been used in the field to survey areas held by Isis in the Middle East but Google stresses the technology is being deployed for "non-offensive uses only." Employees have nevertheless raised concerns about the company's role in defence contracting after it was revealed last week on an internal mailing list, particularly in light of the company's famous founding principle: "Don't be evil."