Google will not renew its contract with the Pentagon due to public reaction. Google refused a multimillion-dollar contract with the Pentagon Artificial intelligence in the military sphere
The fact that Google has refused to participate in the Pentagon’s competition to develop a “smart” cloud computing system. According to company representatives, the refusal is explained by a conflict between the project’s ideas and Google’s ethical principles regarding working with AI technologies.
The contract period is 10 years, the project is called Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud (JEDI). Companies such as Amazon, Oracle, Microsoft and IBM are vying to participate.
Although the corporation no longer specifies the notorious “Don’t be evil” as its principle, it does not take part in the development of technologies for the armed forces, as well as in projects that in one way or another may violate international human rights standards. In addition, , Google does not yet plan to receive government certificates with the corresponding level of access to military data. Amazon and Microsoft have received such certificates. “We decided not to participate in the competition for the Pentagon contract for two main reasons. First, this contradicts our principles of working with AI technologies. Secondly, some elements of the contract require obtaining certificates with a high level of access to government data,” a representative of the corporation commented on the situation.
One of the Google executives told reporters that the company could take on the implementation of some part of the contract if the entire project was carried out by not one contractor, but several.
According to experts from the Tech Workers Coalition, Google would not mind taking part in work on military contracts, but in the current case, the company was prevented from doing so by its own employees. In particular, at the beginning of summer, a real wave of protests arose within the company. After this, Google had to abandon, in particular, the Project Maven project - its goal is to develop a system for recognizing people and objects in photographs from drones using AI.
Interestingly, Oracle is also advocating for the Pentagon to involve multiple performers in JEDI. Oracle management began trying to change the format of the project even before the selection of possible partners began. According to the corporation, the Pentagon has chosen a strategy that will harm the systemic development of the country's military power.
Representatives of Oracle said that the solution should be “multi-cloud”, and the project should involve several workers in order to “have a spirit of competition, more innovations and lower prices for the final solutions.”
The contract itself is very attractive to large US companies, since its budget is several times higher than almost everything that technology corporations and the Pentagon itself have dealt with before. For example, collaborating with the CIA, Amazon was dealing with a project worth hundreds of millions of US dollars, but here it is $10 billion. The total Pentagon budget for cloud initiatives is much larger - JEDI takes up only 16% of the expenditure line for such projects. However, this is the largest project in this area.
Unlike Oracle, Amazon believes that working on such projects alone is easier because the entire process goes more smoothly. Last year, the company spent about $13 million on lobbying for its services, which is more than Oracle and approximately equal to the total costs of Microsoft and IBM for the same purposes.
Amazon founder and longtime CEO Jeff Bezos rejoices at the success of his brainchild
The corporation's competitors criticized this statement, saying that it is impossible to give just one company the opportunity to influence the technological development of the Pentagon, this is quite dangerous in every sense. Amazon is a significant source of irritation among competitors for military contracts, since the Pentagon cooperates with Bezos's company much more often than with all other companies. In addition, Amazon
The Chelyabinsk trailer plant, which regularly fulfilled orders from the Ministry of Defense, signed a contract with the Pentagon. The agreement provides for the supply to the United States of a prototype of the heavy-duty trailer "ChMZAP-9" intended for the transportation of military equipment. It was designed and manufactured by the joint-stock company "Uralavtotripsep". This is direct evidence of the rise in the authority of Russian equipment in the international market and casts doubt on what can be done from us export only raw materials. It turns out that Russia also has technological products that are interesting to the West. Secondly, this opens the door to contracts that develop cooperation between the two countries in the military field, which was previously difficult to believe.
The Chelyabinsk trailer showed itself “in action” during the short-lived war in the Middle East, called “Desert Storm”, when the American military saw it and appreciated it. This model was the first to have a three-axle mechanical suspension with rubber elastic elements; it is not afraid of sand. And the same Americans make similar heavy equipment using hydraulics, which is heavy and inconvenient to maintain and does not tolerate clogging. Longitudinal-transverse balancing allows the trailer to move smoothly at high speed and overcome 30-centimeter bumps and bumps. No one in the world has ever made trailers like this before.
Acting through its military attache, a delegation of high-ranking officers of the US military department “came out” to Chelyabinsk. They wanted to make sure that these same trailers were produced here and test the waters regarding their purchase. Several meetings took place between the interested parties, at which the terms of the contract were finalized. The American military came to Chelyabinsk to receive a prototype trailer that had undergone design modifications and was adapted to foreign equipment. After that, he was sent to Nevada (USA) for sea trials in desert conditions. If they are completed successfully, and Chelyabinsk machine builders are confident of this, a new contract will be signed for the supply of a large batch of trailers for the needs of the American military.
The contract amount is not made public. But we can assume that it is quite large. Speaking at a press conference, S. Mitelman, General Director of the Mizar industrial group, which owns a large stake in Uralavtotrails JSC, said that if the agreement with the Americans had been drawn up earlier, there would have been no need to carry out a second issue of shares in the association. And then a package with a total value of 17 billion rubles was put up for open sale on the stock market.
The funds raised from the implementation of the contract and from the distribution of shares (half of them have already been sold, the rest are planned to be placed before the end of the year) will be used for the technical re-equipment of production and the implementation of programs related to increasing the competitiveness of products. But even today, Uralavtopritsep keeps its export bar quite high; it is one of the few Russian enterprises that is intensively making its way to Western markets. Thus, along with supplies to the USA, a contract is being prepared to be signed with an Austrian intermediary company, which undertakes to ensure the sale of Chelyabinsk trailers for transporting agricultural goods to South American countries.
In addition, the company has a large volume of orders from Russia and neighboring countries, not only for heavy-duty trailers, the production of which the plant previously mainly specialized in, but also for trailers for passenger cars, mobile homes and trade kiosks that can be hauled by domestic "Zhiguli" and "Muscovites" The share of these products now amounts to 40-50 percent of the total production volume. So, turning its face to the mass consumer, the plant confidently enters the market, avoiding the seemingly inevitable reduction in production volumes.
At Google Cloud's weekly meeting, the head of the division, Diana Green, announced that with the completion of the current contract in 2019, the company will not seek cooperation with the Pentagon. This was reported by Gizmodo, citing three internal sources.
The ethical guidelines that Google recently developed for the use of AI are expected to be published by the company next week.
Artificial intelligence in the military sphere
According to Diana Green, the decision is due to the negative reaction of people to cooperation with the US armed forces. As part of the Maven project, the company is developing an automatic AI-based object recognition system for the Pentagon's reconnaissance drones.
Google executives insisted that their system would not be used in military operations. Some noted that this is a small contract compared to those accepted in the industry. However, Gizmodo found out that Maven was only a pilot project. If successful, larger contracts would follow.
The company's employees themselves opposed cooperation with the military department. More than 4 thousand people have petitioned against Google's participation in the Maven project, several employees even
A scandal erupted in the United States, which included the Pentagon, the State Department, the National Congress and... 22-year-old resident of Miami Ephraim Diveroli.
According to intelligence services, this young man, under the cover of high-ranking officials, sold counterfeit weapons to the American military stationed in the combat zone. Machine guns that don’t fire, helmets with holes in them, and cartridges and shells unsuitable for warfare.
NTV correspondent Alexey Veselovsky found out the details of this transaction.
This story began to unfold six months ago, when the Afghan army unpacked boxes of weapons and ammunition supplied to the country by the American company AEY.
In the combat zone, it turned out that the machine guns did not fire, and the boxes of ammunition were partially rotten. The machine guns for the Afghan army came from Albania, under a contract approved by the Pentagon.
Then they realized from the markings that the weapon was not Albanian, but made in China. And, according to American laws, it is subject to an embargo.
Ephraim Diveroli, the head of the company... He is probably the only arms seller in the world with his own page on the most popular website among young people, MYSPACE. He is now 22 years old and behind bars. And when he just started his business career, he was not even 20.
The main question that concerns investigators is how a 22-year-old guy from Miami ended up with contracts for the supply of weapons from the Pentagon worth more than $300 million by March of this year.
After all, A&W and its young president were blacklisted by the State Department back in April 2006. The company was suspected of illegal arms supplies and an internal investigation was then conducted.
Here's what the State Department wrote: “This company looks somewhat suspicious, given that its president is only 21 years old. He makes deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars by selling machine guns and rifles. Further cooperation must be carefully checked."
But even after this note, the American government continues to enter into deals with this company. Diveroli sells everything: rifles, bulletproof vests, ammunition.
Albanian businessman Kosta Trebik, who acted as an intermediary in a deal to sell weapons to Afghanistan, recorded a conversation with Diveroli just in case.
Efraim Diveroli: “I can’t work with the Albanian mafia! I'm an American company. I work for the government. Everyone is watching me."
Kosta Trebika: “Perhaps I will be in Washington soon, the guys from the CIA are inviting me. I have found good partners and we will finish the job.”
Ephraim Diveroli: “Okay, I've got your back, you've got my back. Agreed".
The company lost its license only in March 2008, when Diveroli was arrested on suspicion of fraud and illegal arms trafficking. Namely, two years after she was taken note of by the State Department.
Antonio Evora, UN Disarmament Commission official: “Government officials are often involved in the illegal arms trade. Hundreds of tons cannot be transported across the border just like that. Someone must have known about this."
The Congressional Commission of Inquiry has evidence that on the eve of the deal, Albanian Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu met with US Ambassador to the country John Withers. And allegedly they discussed how to hide the fact of the origin of the weapon and how to pass it off as Albanian so that it could cross the border without hindrance.
Tony Casey, US State Department spokesman: “These are very serious allegations against a Foreign Office official with an impeccable record. They need to be thoroughly investigated."
A 300 million contract for a war in which billions of dollars disappear is, of course, a trifle. But in the United States, many argue that this story is very significant.
The lack of careful control in the Pentagon and the State Department over the expenditure of funds is blamed on the current administration. This is another failure of the Republicans on the eve of the elections, newspapers write.
In Albania, the investigation into this story led to the resignation of the country's Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu and the arrests of seven more people. In the United States, charges have so far been brought against only four representatives of the company. The involvement of American government officials in the illegal arms trade is being revealed.