The Pentagon issued a $10 billion cloud contract to build cloud services for the Department of Defense, which is called JEDI. This contract is enormous is size, and shrouded in secrecy. Therefore, the CMO of the Department explained the impact as follows: “We need to be very clear. This program is truly about increasing the lethality of our department.”
Employees of some of the few companies that were able to bid on the project, expressed their concerns about the project. Google executives recently stated that they will not use AI “for weapons, illegal surveillance, and technologies that cause ‘overall harm.” More recently employees of Microsoft wrote an open letter to their management, asking them not to bid on the JEDI project.
The few tech companies that are able to even consider bidding on the project, are in conflict with their own principles. Google was interested in the bid, and its $10 billion price tag, but only withdrew from it after a large number of employees opposed. Afterwards, Google made the world believe that they withdrew because it would not align with their AI principles.
The question now is whether other companies will also back down from the bid, because their principles not to harm, or kill, other people. Or will they put aside their own principles for the $10 billion bone that is hold in front of their noses. Microsoft is most likely the first company to decide on the matter, since their employees do not want to build systems with the intent of killing people. Only last year Microsoft defined six core principles when it comes to AI. Are they willing to violate them, which they will when accepting the offer, for a large bag of gold? The future will show which company cares less about other people.
First of all, thank you for the interesting post! I agree with the major companies’ employees, that they did not join the company to ultimately kill people. On the other hand, if they can make very clear agreements on what they are building, the employees can weigh their own actions and consequently see if they match their own principles. Besides that, I think there is a shift in warfare, and your own safety that comes along with it, to the digital side. In this way you can contribute to the safety of others, and your own, by participating in the JEDI bid. At least you can have an impact on making the project as humane as possible, and limit the violations against mankind.