Margaret Mitchell, who co-led Google’s ethical AI team:“Google will probably now work on deploying technology directly that can kill people”

The company’s AI Principles previously included a passage titled “AI applications we will not pursue,” such as “technologies that cause or are likely to cause overall harm,” including weapons, according to screenshots viewed by Bloomberg. That language is no longer visible on the page.

The wording previously included applications it would ‘avoid’. Removing ‘harm’ clause may influence what work Google pursues, writes Bloomberg.

Removing the “harm” clause may have implications for the type of work Google will pursue, said Margaret Mitchell, who co-led Google’s ethical AI team and is now chief ethics scientist for AI startup Hugging Face.

“Having that removed is erasing the work that so many people in the ethical AI space and the activist space as well had done at Google, and more problematically it means Google will probably now work on deploying technology directly that can kill people,” she said.

Google employees have long debated how to balance ethical concerns and competitive dynamics in the field of AI, particularly since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT turned up the heat on the search giant. Some Googlers voiced concerns to Bloomberg in 2023 that the company’s drive to regain ground in AI had led to ethical lapses.

Responding to a request for comment, a Google spokesperson shared a blog post published Tuesday.

“We believe democracies should lead in AI development, guided by core values like freedom, equality and respect for human rights,” James Manyika, a senior vice president at Google, and Demis Hassabis, who leads the AI lab Google DeepMind, wrote in the post. “And we believe that companies, governments and organizations sharing these values should work together to create AI that protects people, promotes global growth and supports national security.”

…Here is a new example of how demagogy and hypocrisy become a justification for militarization the West.

This is not “freedom of speech”, this is the path to the destruction of Humanity!

Let’s recall the words of Orwell, who accurately described this policy – "Peace is War".

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