As with many technological advancements, it seems as though the actions we take and the things we invent are becoming more advanced and sophisticated than our capacity to comprehend what comes with them; a group of employees in Google DeepMind are raising this alarm. With this letter signed by nearly 200 DeepMind, Google’s AI division workers, the company was encouraged to cease relying on contracts involving its technological innovations with the Pentagon. Their message is clear: In my opinion, Artificial Intelligence has no place in warfare.
The Growing Need for Ethical Artificial Intelligence
The letter, which has circulated within the company this year, is a declaration of concern from employees who feel that their work can be utilized in a way that runs contrary to the ideals of Google. The employees are particularly concerned about something that they think is in violation of some of the firm’s AI Principles. These principles, remember that, the company will not deploy the AI applications that are likely to be used in causing harm, weapons, or unlawful and human rights violations.
The employees do not sugarcoat anything in the letter. The question at hand is not about siding with some geopolitical entity over another, though one might suspect that is the intent of some, but about the responsible use of Google’s AI. The workers are particularly concerned with knowledge that Google presently holds contracts to provide AI and cloud services for the Israeli military through Project Nimbus. There are growing concerns that by the Israeli military’s employing of AI in a manner that might cause human rights to be trampled on it is closely related to DeepMind’s workers.
A Conflict between Ethics and Business
DeepMind’s approach is indicative of a larger struggle within the company. On one hand, there is an AI division that desires to distance itself from developing military technologies. On the other hand, we have Google Cloud which has agreed to terms to offer AI services to multiple governments and militaries such as that of Israel and the United States. The signatories are approximately 5% of DeepMind’s employees – a relatively small portion, yet an important one in the context of an artificial intelligence company where great minds are extremely desirable.
The workers have demanded that DeepMind’s management halt cooperation with the militaries. They aim to know if the AI created by that company is used or implemented in the military or any weapons-development company. Further, they are for complete halting of access to its technology to any military stakeholders and the creation of a DG to prevent such uses in future.
The Sound of Silence
All the same, analyzing the letter it is clear that Google has not been very satisfactory to the employees. Unless something changed recently, the company has not done anything about the letter, which frustrates the workers and makes them think that they are not being listened to. It appears that such numerous and loud statements made during the acquisition of DeepMind by Google in 2014, according to which the tech giant will never use the AI for military or surveillance purposes, are gradually wearing away as the AI race is launched.
DeepMind was formally a relatively autonomous research division originally based in London and has now been integrated into Google. Therefore, its technological marvel has been packaged with Google Cloud applications and distributed to governments and militaries worldwide, including the Ministry of Defense of the state of Israel. This has seemingly stripped many employees of that sense of ownership that comes with having a say in how the outcome of their work is being utilized.
