May 29, 2018 7:00 AM

Pentagon Will Expand AI Project Prompting Protests at Google

Project Maven, which uses artificial intelligence to identify objects in drone footage, has sparked protests among Google employees.

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At Google’s campus in Mountain View, California, executives are trying to assuage thousands of employees protesting a contract with the Pentagon’s flagship artificial-intelligence initiative, Project Maven. Thousands of miles away, algorithms trained under Project Maven—which includes companies other than Google—are helping war fighters identify potential ISIS targets in video from drones.

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Tom Simonite is a former senior editor who edited WIRED’s business coverage. He previously covered artificial intelligence and once trained an artificial neural network to generate seascapes. Simonite was previously San Francisco bureau chief at MIT Technology Review, and wrote and edited technology coverage at New Scientist magazine in London. ... Read More

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