Reports: Google won’t renew Pentagon contract to use AI

SAN FRANCISCO — Google won’t renew a contract with the Pentagon that provides the company’s artificially intelligent algorithms to interpret video images and improve the targeting of drone strikes.

That’s according to reports in Gizmodo, Buzzfeed, and The New York Times Friday.

The reports said Google Cloud business head Diane Greene told employees of the decision not to renew the 18-month deal past the end of 2019, when the current contract ends.

Google representatives did not respond to a request for comment.

The so-called Project Maven had riled Google employees, including several who quit and thousands of others who signed a petition asking CEO Sundar Pichai to cancel the project and enact a policy renouncing the use of Google technology in warfare.

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