Google says it won’t compete for a $10 billion Pentagon cloud-computing contract to help the U.S. military better leverage artificial intelligence capabilities because the project might conflict with corporate limits on the use of its technologies.
Worth as much as $1 billion a year over a decade, the Joint Enterprise Defense Initiative’s cloud-computing initiative is a part of Defense Secretary James Mattis’s drive to maintain the U.S. military’s competitive edge as artificial intelligence and machine-learning capabilities change the nature of battle.
While the contract is a lucrative one, “we couldn’t be assured that it would align with our artificial intelligence principles,” which include a pledge not to build weapons or other systems intended to cause harm, Google said in a statement explaining its decision.
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