An engineer recruited by Google and later assigned to work on Project Maven has resigned over ethical concerns.
Laura Nolan, a computer science graduate from Trinity College Dublin became increasingly concerned over Project Maven, a programme devised for the US Department of Defense to dramatically speed up drone video recognition technology. Namely to allow AI machines to differentiate people from objects at an ever increasing rate.
Laura wasn’t alone in her concerns as following a signed petition by more than 3,000 of Google’s staff, Google have allowed the Project Maven contract to lapse this year.
Nolan fears that autonomous killing machines pose a far greater threat to mankind than remotely controlled drones.
Already under development are these autonomous weapons:
US Navy’s AN-2 Anaconda gunboat
Russia’s T14 Armata Tank
The Pentagon’s Sea Hunter warship
You can absolutely guarantee this list is the tip of the autonomous iceberg!