Neuron Makers · Ch. 16 · Weaponization
For a year, Google quietly built object-detection for U.S. military drone footage under Project Maven. When employees found out, the ethics-vs-pragmatism argument that had simmered inside the labs spilled into public view — and, for once, the engineers won.
A petition signed by thousands of employees, roughly a dozen resignations, and a single month of public pressure forced one of the largest AI labs to drop a Pentagon contract and write down what it would not build.