In wake of Project Maven backlash, Google unveils new AI policies

The statement comes amid employee discontent over Google's involvement in Project Maven, a controversial Pentagon AI program that seeks, among other things, to use machine learning to quickly detect and categorize objects in images captured by drones. After several employees quit and thousands of others signed a petition against the program, Google has said it will end its participation when its current contract expires next year. Other tech companies have been closemouthed about their role in the program. In a blog post, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company won't stop working with the military entirely: It will still potentially work with the armed forces on areas including cybersecurity, recruitment and training, veterans' healthcare and search and rescue. Google is widely seen as a potential contender for a massive contract to move Defense Department systems to cloud servers.