Around a dozen people have left so far.
In early March, it was announced that Google was working with the U.S. Defense Department on something called Project Maven – a system that uses artificial intelligence to review drone footage and quickly identify certain people, objects, etc. Following Google’s continued involvement with this, employees are now resigning from the company.
According to Gizmodo, around 12 people have left Google and shared their reasoning for doing so in an internal memo.
The employees who are resigning in protest, several of whom discussed their decision to leave with Gizmodo, say that executives have become less transparent with their workforce about controversial business decisions and seem less interested in listening to workers’ objections than they once did.
Many Google employees have shared their resentment for the company’s involvement with Project Maven, with one internal petition asking Google to stop working with the Defense Department and not get involved with any future military contracts collecting 4,000 some signatures.
According to one of the employees that’s resigning –
Over the last couple of months, I’ve been less and less impressed with the response and the way people’s concerns are being treated and listened to.
Another person noted that –
At some point, I realized I could not in good faith recommend anyone join Google, knowing what I knew. I realized if I can’t recommend people join here, then why am I still here?
Google’s yet to respond to these employees’ actions, and it remains to be seen if it’ll address them at all.
What’s your take on Google working with the government to use AI for military purposes?
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