Google Drops Out of Pentagon’s $10B Cloud Competition, Says Deal May Clash With Its AI Values

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Google Drops Out of Pentagon’s $10B Cloud Competition, Says Deal May Clash With Its AI Values

By CircleID Reporter
October 09, 2018, 6:51 pm PDT Views: 10,928 Add Comment

Alphabet Inc.’s Google has announced that it will not compete for the Pentagon’s cloud-computing contract with an estimated value of $10 billion; says the project may conflict with its corporate values on artificial intelligence. Aaron Gregg reporting in the Washington Post: “The contract, known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI for short, calls for a massive cloud-computing infrastructure that can handle classified U.S. military data and enable new defense capabilities. Bids are due Oct. 12. In a statement to The Washington Post, Google said it is dropping its bid for ethical reasons and because it lacked certain government certifications.”

According to Tech Workers Coalition, an advocate for giving employees a say in technology company decisions, Google’s decision to withdraw from the cloud competition was due to pressure from thousands of workers, not AI principles. Tweeted today: “Google had every intention of bidding for, and possibly winning, the JEDI contract. They spent considerable resources and hours of top executive time courting military officials to do exactly this. They only dropped out due to sustained employee pressure.”

By CircleID Reporter

CircleID’s internal staff reporting on news tips and developing stories. Do you have information the professional Internet community should be aware of? Contact us.

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