Google to scrub U.S. military deal protested by employees - source

(San Francisco) REUTERS: Alphabet Inc’s Google will not renew a contract to help the U.S. military analyze aerial drone imagery when it expires in March, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday, as the company moves to defuse internal uproar over the deal.

The defense program, called Project Maven, set off a revolt inside Google, as factions of employees opposed Google technology being used in warfare. The dissidents said it clashed with the company’s stated principle of doing no harm and cited risks around using a nascent artificial intelligence technology in lethal situations.

Google plans to honor what is left of its contract on Project Maven, the person said. More than 4,600 employees signed a petition calling for Google to cancel the deal, with at least 13 employees resigning in recent weeks in protest at Google’s involvement, according to a second person familiar with the deal.

Through Project Maven, Google provides artificial intelligence technology to the Pentagon to help humans detect and identify targets captured by drone images. Company executives have defended the contract, saying its cloud computing and data analysis tools were being used for nonoffensive tasks and would help save lives.

Tech publication Gizmodo first reported that Google Cloud Chief Executive Diane Greene told employees on Friday Google’s role in the program would end.

A source confirmed that, but Google declined to comment. Iran’s oil exports hit 2.7 million barrels per day (bpd) in May, the Oil Ministry’s news agency SHANA reported on Saturday, a new record since the lifting of international sanctions on Tehran in 2016, and despite the threats of fresh U.S. sanctions.

U.S. President Donald Trump on May 8 said the United States was exiting a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and would impose new sanctions that seek to reduce the country’s oil shipments.

Iran exported 2.4 million bpd of crude oil in May, SHANA reported, and 300,000 bpd of natural gas condensate.

Iran’s oil exports were 2.6 bpd in April.

The estimates from Genevabased Petro-logistics suggested this week that Iranian oil buyers are not rushing to cut volumes from OPEC’S third-largest producer. The U.S. sanctions have a 180-day period during which buyers should “wind down” purchases.

The bulk of Iran’s crude exports, at least 1.8 million bpd, goes to Asia. Most of the rest goes to Europe and these volumes are seen by analysts and traders as the more vulnerable to being curbed by U.S. sanctions.

European powers still see the nuclear accord as the best chance of stopping Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and have intensified efforts to save the pact.

Iran’s top leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on May 23 that European powers must protect Iranian oil sales from U.S. sanctions, and continue buying Iranian crude, if they want Tehran to stay in the nuclear deal.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said this week that he was hopeful that an agreement with Europe would inspire other potential buyers of Iranian oil.