Andrew Ng, the founder and former head of Google Brain, supports Google's recent decision that I -Drop its promise not to build AI systems for weapons.
“I'm glad Google has changed its stance,” Ng said in an onstage interview Thursday night with a techcrunch at the military veteran startup conference in San Francisco.
Earlier this week, Google had deleted a 7 -year -old commitment from the AI principle web page, which promised that the company would not design AI for weapons or monitoring. Next to the removal, published by Google A Blog post Deepmind CEO wrote that Demis Hassabis, who mentioned companies and governments should work together to develop AI “supporting national security.”
Google AI's promise made its weapon in 2018 Following the Maven protest project, where thousands of employees protested the US military contracts. Protesters specifically get a Google issue that provides AI for a military program that has helped interpret video images and can be used to improve the accuracy of drone strikes.
Nang, however, was damaged by Project Maven protesters, he told a audience that was mainly made up of veterans.
“Obviously, when the Maven project goes down … many of you will come out, ready to shed blood to protect us all countries,” Ng said. “So how back can an American company refuse to help our own service people out there, fighting for us?”
Ng on Google did not work when Project Maven protests took place, but he played an important role in shaping Google's efforts around the AI and neural network. Today, NG is leading an AI-focus venture studio and AI Fund, and often talks about AI policy.
He later said that he is grateful that the two efforts in the AI regulation – the vetoed California SB 1047 bill and recovered by Biden's AI executive order – no longer playing. He repeatedly argued that both steps would slow down the open source of AI development in America.
The true key to the safety of American AI, who has argued, is to ensure that America can compete with China technologically. He noted that the AI drones were “completely changing the battlefield.”
He was not the only former Google executive to spread that message. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt now spends on his days Lobbying Washington, DC, to buy AI drones to compete with China; His company, White Stork, may eventually provide drones.
While NG and Schmidt seems to support AI military use, the subject separated the rankings within Google for many years.
Meredith Whittaker, now the president of the signal, led the Maven protests in 2018 while working with Google as an AI researcher. When Google made the promise not to renew the Maven contract project, Whittaker said he was happy about the decision, noting the company “should not be in the business of war. “
He's not the only Googler spread. Former Google AI Researcher and Nobel Laureate Geoffrey Hinton previously Calls for the global government to ban and adjust the use of AI in weapons. Another long and respected Google Executive, Jeff Dean – now the Deepmind's chief scientist – previously signed a letter that contradicts the use of machine learning in autonomous weapons.
In recent years, Google and Amazon fell under a revised investigation for their military work, including their Project contracts nimbus with the government of Israel. Employees of the same cloud provider conducted sit-ins last year to protest the Project Nimbus, where Google and Amazon were reported to have provided cloud computing services to Israeli's defense forces.
The Pentagon and Militaries around the world have a revised appetite for using AIThe AI's chief Department of the Department of Defense was previously told in Techcrunch. As Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and other giant tech invested the road -billions of dollars in AI infrastructure, many are looking to recover investment through military partnerships.
