philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Why Is Google Slow-Walking Its Breakthroughs in AI?

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has made “AI first” a company slogan, but the company’s wariness of AI’s power has sometimes let its competitors lead instead. Google is a distant third in the cloud computing market behind Amazon and Microsoft. Late last year Google’s cloud division announced that it would not offer a facial-recognition service that customers could adapt for their own uses due to concerns about its potential for abuse.

Although Amazon and Microsoft have recently called for federal regulation of automated facial recognition, both have offered the technology for years. Amazon’s customers include the sheriff’s office of Washington County, Oregon, where deputies use its algorithms to check suspects against a database of mug shots.

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Google sought outside help on thinking through those concerns. The company commissioned a human rights assessment of the new product from corporate social responsibility nonprofit BSR, whose supporters include Google, McDonald’s, and Walmart.

BSR’s report warned that celebrity facial recognition could be used intrusively, for example if it were applied to surveillance footage in order to collect or broadcast live notifications on a person’s whereabouts. The nonprofit recommended that Google allow individual celebrities to opt out of the service and also that it vet would-be customers.

Google began to publicly grapple with the tension between the promise and potential downsides of AI last year, in part because it was forced to. Cofounder Sergey Brin marveled in an open investor letterthat recent AI progress was “the most significant development in computing in my lifetime,” but also warned that “such powerful tools also bring with them new questions and responsibilities.” The letter was released just days after employee protests against Google’s participation in a Pentagon AI project called Maven.

Frey claims that restricting products now will pay off in the long run. As companies make more use of AI, they become more aware of the need to be careful with it, she says.

See the full story here: https://www.wired.com/story/why-is-google-slow-walking-its-breakthroughs-in-ai/