Stanford students boycott Google jobs over firm’s military work
Many dreamed of working with company one day
Google has for years been a top destination for graduates of Stanford University, but now a studentled campaign against the firm’s controversial military work is trying to put a squeeze on its talent pipeline.
More than 100 students — including many from Stanford but also others from different colleges and universities — have signed a pledge to boycott interviewing at Google unless the Mountain View tech giant stops doing military projects.
“I actually dreamed of joining Google because I really believed tech was going to be this great force for good,” said Niloufar Salehi, a computer science Ph.D. student at Stanford who signed the pledge. “Ever since I was in high school and I started coding, Google was this dream that I had.
“It was just … really devastating for me to see the ways that this technology could really be turned around and used in ways that would harm people.”
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The boycott campaign was triggered by Google’s controversial contract with the Pentagon to provide artificial intelligence expertise for the military drone program, in analyzing drone footage as part of “Project Maven.” Some 4,000 Google employees signed a petition calling for the company to withdraw from the contract — reportedly worth at least $15 million to the firm — and avoid