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Project Maven: Google won’t renew AI deal for military drones amid outcry

Click to play video: 'Canadian soldiers not equipped for drone warfare threat'
Canadian soldiers not equipped for drone warfare threat
More insurgents and terror groups are using drones to do surveillance and even launch attacks. It's a new threat for Canadian soldiers who are about to embark on a mission to Mali. But as Mike Armstrong reports, they're ill-prepared for the threat – May 29, 2018

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.

READ MORE: What is Project Maven? The Pentagon AI project Google employees want out of

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.

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Google representatives did not respond to a request for comment.

READ MORE: Drone wars: How ‘off-the-shelf’ drones are changing the way wars are fought

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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.

READ MORE: Google employees ask tech giant to pull out of Pentagon AI project

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