6 ms·

Google Wants to Work with The Pentagon Again, Despite Employee Concerns

57 points by jaredwiener 5y ago

amatwl 5y ago
Good. To be honest, if the tech companies (i.e. MSFT, Google, Amazon, etc.) ever decided to fully compete with defense contractors, like Boeing, LM, Northrup Grumman, etc., they could clean up easily. There are plenty of defense contracts that don't require you building bombs or munitions.
- sterlind 5y ago
  For instance: * Search - XKeyscore is so '00s! Using the infrastructure developed for Dragonfly, Google could build an on-premisis instance of search for the NSA's bulk collection archives. * Quantum could finally become lucrative with proper funding to make Shor's algorithm practical. * Speech recognition to automatically transcribe phone calls in bulk with high accuracy. They just need to sell the model, really. * Deepmind could leverage computer vision to identify drone strike targets.. oh wait. I support IC and acknowledge how necessary good intelligence and a credible military are, but it's terrifying what uses Google's tech could be put towards. It's like an alternate universe where privatized nuclear power showed up first, then came spooky contracts for atomic bombs.
  - amatwl 5y ago
    I work in defense. I constantly tell folks that we're doomed once/if tech companies start competing in traditional defense/ aerospace contracts. The only barrier for that I see is the supposed "opposition" by tech workers, which I'm not entirely clear is a opinion shared by the majority of the workforce. Also once you start looking outside of things like satellites and space systems, defense companies end up looking pretty boring. Also we pay less than pretty much any other tech company other there, most of our offices haven't changed much since the 80s. Overall, it makes it hard to recruit good engineering talent. A significant number of my coworkers I've worked in the past few years with have left defense. (Also seen plenty of folks move to SpaceX)
yosito 5y ago
Interesting that someone can lack so much moral sense that they choose to work at Google, yet claim enough moral sense to object to working with the Pentagon.
- rightbyte 5y ago
  Ye. I mean it is fine if they are pacifists but I guess most are not. If they think that way about their own country's armed forces, why are they even paying tax?
- xibalba 5y ago
  > moral sense This suggests a (perceived) place of moral certainty and absolutism. It seems pretty clear to me that Google is not all immoral. In fact, it isn’t hard to argue that it is mostly moral. Same goes for the military. The U.S. requires a military (in some form). Google + DoD doesn’t strike me as a question of morality writ large. Rather, if someone is so delusional as to believe that either the U.S. shouldn’t have a military or that it’s technologists should deprive it of their talents, they really shouldn’t be at Google.
  - tomjakubowski 5y ago
    boycotting work for the Pentagon hardly implies a desire to disarm the federal government. the bus boycotters in Montgomery weren't opposed to the city having a public transit system.
    - xibalba 5y ago
      What is the objective then?
peakaboo 5y ago
Is this supposed to give the public the impression Google is currently not working with the US security services? .

57 points by jaredwiener 5y ago

Good. To be honest, if the tech companies (i.e. MSFT, Google, Amazon, etc.) ever decided to fully compete with defense contractors, like Boeing, LM, Northrup Grumman, etc., they could clean up easily. There are plenty of defense contracts that don't require you building bombs or munitions.

sterlind 5y ago
For instance: * Search - XKeyscore is so '00s! Using the infrastructure developed for Dragonfly, Google could build an on-premisis instance of search for the NSA's bulk collection archives. * Quantum could finally become lucrative with proper funding to make Shor's algorithm practical. * Speech recognition to automatically transcribe phone calls in bulk with high accuracy. They just need to sell the model, really. * Deepmind could leverage computer vision to identify drone strike targets.. oh wait. I support IC and acknowledge how necessary good intelligence and a credible military are, but it's terrifying what uses Google's tech could be put towards. It's like an alternate universe where privatized nuclear power showed up first, then came spooky contracts for atomic bombs.
- amatwl 5y ago
  I work in defense. I constantly tell folks that we're doomed once/if tech companies start competing in traditional defense/ aerospace contracts. The only barrier for that I see is the supposed "opposition" by tech workers, which I'm not entirely clear is a opinion shared by the majority of the workforce. Also once you start looking outside of things like satellites and space systems, defense companies end up looking pretty boring. Also we pay less than pretty much any other tech company other there, most of our offices haven't changed much since the 80s. Overall, it makes it hard to recruit good engineering talent. A significant number of my coworkers I've worked in the past few years with have left defense. (Also seen plenty of folks move to SpaceX)

yosito 5y ago

Interesting that someone can lack so much moral sense that they choose to work at Google, yet claim enough moral sense to object to working with the Pentagon.

rightbyte 5y ago
Ye. I mean it is fine if they are pacifists but I guess most are not. If they think that way about their own country's armed forces, why are they even paying tax?
xibalba 5y ago
> moral sense This suggests a (perceived) place of moral certainty and absolutism. It seems pretty clear to me that Google is not all immoral. In fact, it isn’t hard to argue that it is mostly moral. Same goes for the military. The U.S. requires a military (in some form). Google + DoD doesn’t strike me as a question of morality writ large. Rather, if someone is so delusional as to believe that either the U.S. shouldn’t have a military or that it’s technologists should deprive it of their talents, they really shouldn’t be at Google.
- tomjakubowski 5y ago
  boycotting work for the Pentagon hardly implies a desire to disarm the federal government. the bus boycotters in Montgomery weren't opposed to the city having a public transit system.
  - xibalba 5y ago
    What is the objective then?

peakaboo 5y ago

Is this supposed to give the public the impression Google is currently not working with the US security services? .