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Wasn't Google supposed to sell the division last year? What happened to that idea? Or has it decided to break its promise and become a military contractor?
by mtgx 10y ago
Wasn't Google supposed to sell the division last year? What happened to that idea? Or has it decided to break its promise and become a military contractor?
- burkaman 10y agoWhat promise are you referring to? Boston Dynamics has been funded by DARPA for 10+ years.
- ceejayoz 10y agohttp://www.upi.com/Business_News/2014/03/24/Google-rejects-military-funding-for-DARPA-Robotics-Challenge-remains-in-competition/5441395686972/ http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2014/03/24/Google-rejects-m... > Google, having recently acquired Boston Dynamics and Schaft, has rejected military money for the DARPA Robotics Challenge, remaining in the competition under their own funding. https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/185570-google-finally-proves-it-wont-pursue-military-contacts-pulls-leading-robot-from-darpa-competition https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/185570-google-finally-pr... > On the other hand, Google has been very open about its feelings on military funding: it doesn’t want any. Keeping the Google team working to win the DARPA challenge would have meant receiving indirect funding from the Pentagon and (hopefully) prize money, too. DARPA, of course, hates this analysis, since its whole strategy with the Grand Challenge has been to claim that totally non-violent civilian applications are the one and only aim of this competition. This is supposed to be about building robots that can burst into burning American homes to save American lives; any resemblance these actions may bear to the sorts of military maneuvers that are DARPA’s actual raison d’être are purely coincidental.