GOOG Alphabet Inc

By Douglas MacMillan 

Google won't allow its artificial-intelligence products to be used in military weapons, the company said Thursday, as it tries to balance its "Don't Be Evil" mantra with the wide-ranging applications of its technology.

In a new 8,000-word set of ethicals principles and guidelines, Google outlined how it plans to manage -- and in some cases limit -- the application of artificial intelligence, a powerful and emerging set of technologies that Google views as key to its growth.

Google, the primary business unit of Alphabet Inc., has recently come under criticism from its own employees for supplying image-recognition technology to the U.S. Department of Defense, in a partnership called Project Maven. Google told employees earlier this month it wouldn't seek to renew its contract for Project Maven, a person familiar with the matter said at the time, and that decision in turn was blasted by some who said the company shouldn't be conflicted about supporting national security.

Google's artificial intelligence also recently generated public alarm after the company demonstrated a robotic voice that can trick humans into thinking it is real.

Google is having to expand its definition of ethics as its technology seeps more and more into the institutions of public life, from scientific research to military intelligence.

"These are not theoretical concepts," Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in the blog post sharing the new principles. "They are concrete standards that will actively govern our research and product development and will impact our business decisions."

The principles are aimed at helping the company avoid missteps in developing new technology that could have harmful side effects. They are also an attempt to give outsiders a window into the complex decisions that go into developing smart new machines.

While the principles go into great detail about the many ethical considerations of AI, they stop short of drawing clear lines that would prevent Google from undertaking controversial projects.

In its principles, the company said it won't pursue "technologies that cause or are likely to cause overall harm" nor will it develop AI for use in weapons. It is unclear whether this principle would have prevented Google from continuing its work on Project Maven, which supplied imaging tools used by drones. A company spokesman previously has said it isn't used for the purpose of firing offensive strikes.

Google is bidding for a multibillion-dollar contract to move the Pentagon's data into the cloud. The Pentagon's Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract, known by the acronym JEDI, could be worth billions over a decade for cloud computing.

Google says new applications of AI should benefit society as a whole, seek to avoid unfair bias and be tested for safety. It should also incorporate principles of data privacy and scientific excellence and be subject to human intervention.

The company acknowledges that technologies can have unintended uses that can be harmful to society, and said it reserves the right to "prevent or stop uses of our technology when we become aware of uses that are inconsistent with these principles."

Google's YouTube, along with Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc., were criticized over the past year for failing to prevent a Russian campaign to use their services to sway the results of the U.S. election. YouTube said earlier this year it is planning changes to give users more context for videos promoting conspiracy theories or state-sponsored content, hoping to avoid similar misuses of its video site in the future.

Google was questioned by U.S. lawmakers again this week, who are looking into the company's relationship with Chinese tech giants. Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.) on Thursday asked Alphabet Inc. and Twitter Inc. about data-sharing with Chinese vendors, including Xiaomi and Tencent Holdings Google's relationship with China's Huawei Technologies Co., part of Washington's escalating digital Cold War with Beijing.

Write to Douglas MacMillan at douglas.macmillan@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 07, 2018 15:59 ET (19:59 GMT)

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