Google Sets Limits on Its Use of AI, but Allows Defense Work

Earlier this year, Google CEO Sundar Pichai described artificial intelligence as more profound to humanity than fire. Thursday, after protests from thousands of Google employees over a Pentagon project, Pichai offered guidelines for how Google will--and won't--use the technology. One thing Pichai says Google won't do: work on AI for weapons. But the guidelines leave much to the discretion of company executives and allow Google to continue to work for the military. The ground rules are a response to more than 4,500 Googlers signing a letter protesting the company's involvement in a Pentagon project called Maven that uses machine learning to interpret drone surveillance video.