Google to draft ethics rules after defense contract angers employees

Google will draw up ethics principles following employees' objections to a company project for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), reports Fortune. The Maven project entailed using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze drone videos to identify objects under surveillance. Google denies being involved in the military offensive activity, but a group of more than 3,000 employees believed the project would aid the department in targeting people for death and wrote CEO Sundar Pichai stating their objection to it. According to Fortune, Google Cloud chief Diane Greene followed up by telling employees in a town hall meeting that management will draft ethics principles that prohibit the company from getting involved in future Maven-type projects without having such guidelines in place. She also said she regretted that Google had signed on to aid the project.