Google’s AI is being used by US military drone programme

DoD's Project Maven uses tech firm's TensorFlow artificial intelligence systems, prompting debate both inside and outside company

Google's artificial intelligence technologies are being used by the US military for one of its drone projects, causing controversy both inside and outside the company.

Google's TensorFlow AI systems are being used by the US Department of Defense's (DoD) Project Maven, which was established in July last year to use machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyse the vast amount of footage shot by US drones. The initial intention is to have AI analyse the video, detect objects of interest and flag them for a human analyst to review.