3 Years After the Maven Uproar, Google Cozies to the Pentagon

In 2018, thousands of Google employees protested a Pentagon contract dubbed Project Maven that used the company's artificial intelligence technology to analyze drone surveillance footage. Google said it wouldn't renew the contract and announced guiding principles for future AI projects that forbid work on weapons and surveillance projects "violating internationally accepted norms." At the same time, Google made clear it would still seek defense contracts. "While we are not developing AI for use in weapons," CEO Sundar Pichai wrote, "we will continue our work with governments and the military in many other areas." In the three years since, Google has stayed true to his word.