Google drops out of bidding for massive Pentagon cloud...

Google is dropping out of the bidding for a huge Pentagon cloud computing contract that could be worth up to $10 billion, saying the deal would be'inconsistent with its principles'. The decision by Google leaves a handful of other tech giants including Amazon and Microsoft in the running for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract aimed at modernizing the military's computing systems. Google said in a statement'we couldn't be assured that [the JEDI deal] would align with our AI Principles and second, we determined that there were portions of the contract that were out of scope with our current government certifications.' The principles bar use of Google's artificial intelligence (AI) software in weapons as well as services that violate international norms for surveillance and human rights. Google was provisionally certified in March to handle U.S. government data with'moderate' security, but Amazon.com and Microsoft Corp have higher clearances.