What is Google doing with AI? Chips with Everything podcast

Chips with Everything Series

Jordan Erica Webber chats to a panel of artificial intelligence experts about what Sundar Pichai’s seven objectives could mean in practice

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In April 2017, the US Department of Defense launched an Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Functional Team, otherwise known as Project Maven. The project uses Google’s artificial intelligence to analyse drone footage.

This did not go down well with Google’s employees. More than 3,000 workers signed an open letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, asking the company to pull out of the program, writing that “Google should not be in the business of war”.

In early June 2018, reports surfaced that Google had informed employees it would not renew its contract for Project Maven, and days afterwards, Pichai published the blog post AI at Google: our principles, which laid out seven objectives for AI applications to guide Google’s work going forward.

This week, Jordan Erica Webber chats to Dr Yasemin J Erden of St Mary’s University, Sanjay Modgil of Kings College London and Dr Sandra Wachter of the Oxford Internet Institute and the Turing Institute.

The panel of AI experts discuss what Pichai’s objectives could mean in practice and whether or not the AI industry needs to accept the dirty R word – Regulation.

  • Check out Sundar Pichai’s blog post.
  • Read about our interesting tech fact of the week.
  • Email the Chips team: chipspodcast@theguardian.com
  • And of course, follow us on Twitter: @jawsew and @DaniS1006
Students For A Free Tibet protest in front of Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California January 25, 2006. China's propaganda mandarins closed an outspoken supplement of a respected newspaper, as Web search leader Google announced restrictions on a new service for China to avoid confrontation with Beijing. REUTERS/Kimberly White
Photograph: Kimberly White / Reuters/REUTERS
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