Microsoft plans to continue to provide its technology to the U.S. military, despite worries among the software maker's own employees that advances in the field of artificial intelligence could empower weapons to act autonomously and kill people. The company laid out its reasoning Friday in a blog post by Brad Smith, Microsoft's president. He wrote that he and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella addressed employee concerns about the issue in a meeting Thursday, and conceded not all the workers were satisfied. In a letter published on blogging site Medium, the employees wrote that they joined Microsoft with'the expectation that the technologies we build will not cause harm or human suffering.' Microsoft has worked with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) on a'longstanding and reliable basis' for four decades.

Google will reportedly halt its work on a military project that had fomented an employee revolt. Google Cloud chief Diane Greene told employees that the company would not renew its contract with the US military, according to multiple reports, acceding to a broad backlash against Google developing technology that could be weaponised. A representative of Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Google blasted for listing'Nazism' as tenet of California Republicans Google quietly removes'don't be evil' preface from code of conduct Hundreds of AI experts call on Google to stop weaponizing technology Google blasted for listing'Nazism' as tenet of California Republicans Google quietly removes'don't be evil' preface from code of conduct Thousands of workers had signed a letter asking leadership to end its involvement in a Pentagon pilot programme, known as Project Maven", that uses artificial intelligence to decipher video footage and could be used to improve targeted drone strikes. "We believe that Google should not be in the business of war", the letter read, cautioning that the tool could be used to "assist the US Government in military surveillance - and potentially lethal outcomes".