Google is not taking part in the battle for JEDI, a gigantic cloud contract offered by the US Department of Defense and potentially worth ten billion dollars. Google has decided not to participate, because the contract may not be in line with the principles it applies to the way artificial intelligence should be used.
That’s what Google says in a statement to press agency Bloomberg. A spokesman for the company stated that Google could not be assured that JEDI was in line with the company’s AI principles. It also does not fit in with the current certifications that the company currently has from the American government. At the same time, Google will continue to work to support the American government in many ways with our cloud.
Ten-year contract
JEDI is the abbreviation for Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure and a contract that companies have been able to bid on for two months. The company that is awarded the contract will be allowed to help the U.S. defence with the switch to the cloud for a period of ten years. Only one provider will be chosen, something that the Pentagon was heavily criticised for.
Google also does not consider this decision to be the strongest. Google Cloud believes that a multi-cloud approach is best for government agencies because it allows them to choose the right cloud for the right workload. But the Pentagon fears that it will then be less able to roll out new techniques, while it wants to switch to the cloud for extra efficiency in this.
Other candidates
The fact that Google no longer bids on JEDI fits in with an earlier choice to step out of another project, called Maven. In doing so, Google helped the U.S. Army analyze drone images, especially those taken in conflict zones. Thousands of Google employees didn’t think that was a good idea and signed a petition against it.
As a result, Google decided to leave Maven and come up with AI principles. These are guidelines for the way it uses AI technology. Other companies still bid on JEDI. The main candidate seems to be Amazon, because it has also set up the CIA cloud. Other candidates are probably IBM, Microsoft and Oracle.
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.
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