Surveillance AI News & Updates
Google Removes Ban on AI for Weapons and Surveillance from Its Principles
Google has quietly removed a pledge to not build AI for weapons or surveillance from its website, replacing it with language about supporting "national security." This change comes amid ongoing employee protests over Google's contracts with the U.S. and Israeli militaries, with the Pentagon's AI chief recently confirming some company AI models are accelerating the military's kill chain.
Skynet Chance (+0.15%): Google's removal of explicit prohibitions against AI for weapons systems represents a significant ethical shift that could accelerate the development and deployment of autonomous or semi-autonomous weapons systems, a key concern in Skynet-like scenarios involving loss of human control.
Skynet Date (-5 days): The explicit connection to military kill chains and removal of weapons prohibitions suggests a rapid normalization of AI in lethal applications, potentially accelerating the timeline for deploying increasingly autonomous systems in high-stakes military contexts.
AGI Progress (+0.04%): While this policy change doesn't directly advance AGI capabilities, it removes ethical guardrails that previously limited certain applications, potentially enabling research and development in areas that could contribute to more capable and autonomous systems in high-stakes environments.
AGI Date (-2 days): The removal of ethical limitations will likely accelerate specific applications of AI in defense and surveillance, areas that typically receive significant funding and could drive capability advances relevant to AGI in select domains like autonomous decision-making.