Around a dozen Google employees have quit over the company's involvement in an artificial intelligence drone program for the Pentagon called Project Maven, Gizmodo reported today. Meanwhile, nearly 4,000 workers have now demanded an end to the company's participation in Maven in a petition that also calls for Google to avoid military work in the future. Project Maven seeks to help the military analyze drone footage faster through machine learning, as the AI detects people and objects for human review. Those who resigned from Google cited ethical concerns over the use of AI in drone operations and the company's broader involvement in political and military spheres -- Google recently sponsored the Conservative Political Action Conference, for instance. Some claimed that Google is increasingly less transparent with employees about contentious decisions and seems less concerned about objections from staffers than it used to be.

Around a dozen Google employees have quit over the company's involvement in an artificial intelligence drone program for the Pentagon called Project Maven, Gizmodo reported today.