Last year, Google published its AI Principles in response to Project Maven backlash and revealed plans for an external advisory group. The company today announced an Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC) to consider “complex challenges” related to AI, like facial recognition.
Speech synthesis technology has advanced a great deal in recent years, with neural networks from DeepMind doing an especially good job of creating realistic, human-like voices. Like with any technology, it can be abused and Google is working to advance state-of-the-art research on fake audio detection.
Google employees last year organized in protest against a machine learning project with the U.S. military to analyze drone footage. Googlers were successful in halting Project Maven and the company created AI Principles to govern future products. Those 4,000 anonymous Googlers have today been named the 2018 Arms Control Persons of the Year.
Back in June, Google released AI Principles — in response to Project Maven backlash — that codified how artificial intelligence would be used in research and products going forward. The company is now detailing additional initiatives and processes that it implemented to ensure that all guidelines are enforced.
Following the revelation that Google was working with the US military on recognizing drone footage, the company promised that it would develop guidelines to govern AI usage. Today, Sundar Pichai announced these principles and clarified what kind of research and work the company will and won’t undertake in the future.
