Military technology is a very popular area in international business, which is developing faster and faster every day. Despite the fact that, as such, the use of products manufactured by this industry is extremely undesirable, its multi-billion funding continues and its excellent development prospects are predicted. A common opinion connects the defense industry with the names of international corporations like Lockheed Martin, which is why the public is surprised if companies like Google start to appear in the military industry.
Google is associated with the search engine and the best loyalty program in the world, but not with the production of military technology. However, this is a fact - Google is acting as an employee for the US Department of Defense in improving the software of military drones.
Marven Project: What Google and the US Department of Defense are working on
The project is called Marven, and in the media there is not enough accurate information about its work to have a clear idea of the developments that are conducted with the participation of Google. It was launched by the Pentagon in the spring of 2017, and it still remains a mystery how great the role of a well-known corporation is in military developments. However, the overall picture is. The goal of the project is the improvement of the video surveillance system from drones, the work is being done on the technology of recognizing objects that fall into the camera lens.
Within the Marven project, there is a recruitment of a professional team that will be able to take video surveillance technology to a whole new level. Perhaps Google is the supplier of highly qualified specialists, because the company employs many outstanding scientists and developers.
Prospects for new technologies
The priority in the work on the improvement of video surveillance systems is due to the exception of professional mistakes, which in wartime conditions can become a threat to the success of operations and even to people's lives. For example, when observing a war drone, a misunderstanding may occur that will lead to a real tragedy - the operator, observing active actions in the lens, takes the usual festivities at the Afghan wedding for an act of terrorism. Such mistakes are unacceptable, since the price for them is the lives of innocent people, and the development of new technologies is being carried out primarily to protect the civilian population.
Public reaction
It is quite logical that Google’s plans did not include the leak of information in the media - the corporation did not want to know about its participation in military developments. But the care for the company's reputation was prevented by the correspondence of two employees, which appeared on the world wide web and shed light on the Marven project. The reaction of the public was not long in coming, and the leaders in demonstrating their positions were the employees of Google Corporation. They were divided into two camps: part of the team considered the idea of combating terrorism with the help of IT-technologies innovative and noteworthy, while the other part was skeptical about the Marven project - the use of artificial intelligence for military development seemed absolutely unethical and barbaric to scientific research computer technology.
