Andrew ng is ‘very happy’ that Google dropped its promise of weapons of Aya

Andrew NG, the founder and former leader of Google Brain, supports Google’s recent decision to leave his commitment not to build AI systems for weapons.

“I am very happy that Google has changed its position,” NG said during an interview on the stage on Thursday night with TechCrunch at the Startup Military Startup conference in San Francisco.

Earlier this week, Google eliminated a seven -year promise from its website of AI, which promised that the company would not design AI for weapons or surveillance. Together with the elimination, Google published a Blog Written by the Deepmind CEO, Demis Hassabis, who pointed out that companies and governments should work together to build an AI that “supports national security.”

Google made its commitment of AI weapons in 2018 after the protests of the Maven project, in which thousands of employees protested the company’s contracts with the United States Army. The protesters specifically questioned with Google Supplying AI for a military program that helped interpret video images, and could be used to improve the accuracy of drone strikes.

NG, however, was bewildered by the Maven project protesters, told a hearing largely composed of veterans.

“Frankly, when the Maven project fell (…) many of you are leaving, willing to spill blood so that our country protects us all,” said Ng. “So how hell can an American company refuse to help our own service to people who are there, fighting for us?”

NG did not work on Google when the protests of the Maven project occurred, but played a key role in the configuration of Google’s efforts around AI and neural networks. Today, NG leads a risk study focused on AI, ai Fund, and frequently speaks about the policy of AI.

Later, NG said he was grateful that two regulatory efforts of AI, the draft Law of California Vatado, SB 1047, and the Executive Order of Ia de Biden, were no longer at stake. He had repeatedly argued that both measures would slow down the development of open source AI in the United States.

The true key to the security of the American AI, he argued, is to make sure that the United States can compete with China technologically. He pointed out that the drones of AI “would completely revolutionize the battlefield.”

He is not the only former Google executive who has spread that message. The former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, now spends his days Lobbying washington dc to buy drones ai compete with China; Your company, White Stork, can eventually supply those drones.

While NG and Schmidt seem to support the use of the military, the theme has divided the ranks into Google for years.

Meredith Whittaker, now president of Signal, directed Maven’s protests in 2018 while working in Google as an AI researcher. When Google made the promise not to renew his contracts from Project Maven, Whittaker said she was happy with the decision, pointing out the company “I shouldn’t be in the war business. “

She is not the only Googler whose dissident. Former Google AI researcher and the Nobel Geoffrey Hinton Nobel asked that global governments prohibit and regulate the use of weapons. Another and venerated executive of Google, Jeff Dean, now the main scientist of Deepmind, previously He signed a letter that opposes the use of automatic learning in autonomous weapons.

In recent years, Google and Amazon fell under a renewed scrutiny for their military work, including their Nimbus contracts with the Israeli government. The employees of both cloud suppliers organized sitting last year to protest against the Nimbus project, under which Google and Amazon provided cloud computing services to the Israeli defense force.

The Pentagon and the military around the world have a renewed appetite to use AI, said the director of the Department of Defense to Techcrunch. As Google, Amazon, Microsoft and other technological giants invest hundreds of billions of dollars in AI infrastructure, many seek to recover that investment through military associations.