This article was authored by myself, published via Disobedient Media.
When one searches for images to represent artificial intelligence, various engines return representations of serene, benevolent faces formed by the convergence of digital code or blocks of data with the light of sudden enlightenment pouring from their foreheads. Alternatively, one finds images of robotic and human hands shaking in a symbol of peace, or even representations of Michelangelo's Creation of Adam. Meanwhile, news reports tell us that the technology is now to be used in drone warfare. So, what is the real face of this new weaponry at the center of an international arms race?
In a previous report, this author cited the excellent work of independent Journalist Caitlin Johnstone on the dangers of artificial intelligence, as well as Julian Assange's warning on the matter. At the time of writing, the influence of artificial intelligence on social media and in framing the narrative of public discourse was my primary concern.
A [Tweet by Wikileaks](https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/971697330943676418) changed that focus.
Wikileaks wrote: "The beginning of the end of humanity: Google has put artificial intelligence (AI) into the Pentagon's drone program," and linked an article published by The Bulletin. The piece indicates that artificial intelligence has been weaponized, and is involved in the analysis of drone footage as part of Project Maven. The Bulletin's report appears heavily biased in favor of the military and its collaboration with companies like Google in order to militarize AI. The Bulletin describes the operation, known as Project Maven, as a crash Defense Department program that was designed to deliver AI technologies—specifically, technologies that involve deep learning neural networks—to an active combat theater within six months from when the project received funding.
The Bulletin's report goes on to describe Maven's use of artificial intelligence to focus on the analysis of "full-motion video data from tactical aerial drone platforms." That drones are now being used in tandem with Artificial Intelligence in warfare is concerning, and deserves dramatically increased scrutiny from establishment media. The need for increased coverage on this issue is especially pressing considering that the actual role of artificial intelligence in warfare is likely far more advanced than the latest news suggests.
Independent journalists including Caitlin Johnstone and Lee Camp, have consistently reported on the CIA's overt participation in corporate press. Instead of facing a timid complicit media, the CIA has become the press. Perhaps this new level of arrogance stems to some extent from the wave of former CIA and military intelligence officers running for political office on Democratic Party tickets, as related in a groundbreaking expose by the World Socialist Website. According to the article, many of the candidates in question participated directly in what amounted to War Crimes in Iraq, including the use of drone warfare.
Buried in the Bulletin's report is an admission that the "secret sauce" ingredient for the program's success was "external partnerships." This raises the specter of Google's most devastating collaboration with the industrial death complex to date. The Bulletin explicitly describes Google's advocacy for the expansion of artificial intelligence for military use in terms of an arms race against Russia and China. The report rapturously states:
"The US national security community is right to pursue greater utilization of AI capabilities. The global security landscape—in which both Russia and China are racing to adapt AI for espionage and warfare—essentially demands this. Both Robert Work and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt have said that leadership in AI technology is critical to the future of economic and military power and that continued US leadership is far from guaranteed."Robert Work joined the board of Raytheon a mere three months after leaving his position as Deputy Defense Secretary, embodying the revolving door between the corporate and state branches of the economy of death. Work's excitement at the prospect of increased military spending on research and development is, then, par for the course.
Graffiti in Yemen. Image via Telsur, Reuters.
The Bulletin's admission that the program will likely spawn 'a hundred copycats' raises additional concern. Will one of those copycats aid in the ongoing genocide in Yemen? Will artificial intelligence be used to analyze similar footage from domestic spying operations? These fundamental questions will not be put to the likes of Eric Schmidt or Robert Work by members of the corporate media.
Unelected military interests have attempted to remove the consciousness from soldiers for decades, to make them more and more efficient killing machines. With drones and artificial intelligence, we are on the verge of removing humanity from the warfare equation altogether.
A report by Fox News confirmed Google's participation in Project Maven, relating that: "Google’s artificial intelligence technologies are being used by the U.S. military for one of its drone projects [Maven], causing a stir both inside and outside the company." Wired
specifically commented on the depth of Google's involvement with artificial intelligence, describing it as the "core of almost all of Google’s current and future technologies."
Google's enmeshment within the US military and government lattice has been reported for years, primarily by Wikileaks' Julian Assange. In 'Google Is Not What It Seems,' Assange detailed Google's role as part of the operation of warfare and the State Department, specifically mentioning Eric Schmidt 26 times. Assange wrote of the collaboration between Schmidt and Jared Cohen, the President of Jigsaw, an adjunct senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations who previously served in the State Department under both Condoleeza Rice and Hillary Clinton:
Later that year the two co-wrote a policy piece for the Council on Foreign Relations’ journal Foreign Affairs, praising the reformative potential of Silicon Valley technologies as an instrument of US foreign policy. Footnote: Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen, “The Digital Disruption: Connectivity and the Diffusion of Power,” Foreign Affairs, November /December 2010, archive.today/R13l2.">5Describing what they called “coalitions of the connected, “Coalitions of the connected” is a phrase apparently designed to resonate with the “coalition of the willing,” which was used to designate the 2003 US-led alliance of states preparing to invade Iraq without UN Security Council approval.">6 Schmidt and Cohen claimed that: "Democratic states that have built coalitions of their militaries have the capacity to do the same with their connection technologies. . . . They offer a new way to exercise the duty to protect citizens around the world [emphasis added]. The phrase “duty to protect” is redolent of “responsibility to protect,” or, in its abbreviated form, “R2P.” R2P is a highly controversial “emerging norm” in international law. R2P leverages human rights discourse to mandate “humanitarian intervention” by “the international community” in countries where the civilian population is deemed to be at risk. For US liberals who eschew the naked imperialism of Paul Wolfowitz (on which see Patrick E. Tyler, “U.S. strategy plan calls for insuring no rivals develop,” New York Times, 8 March 1992, archive.today/Rin1g), R2P is the justification of choice for Western military action in the Middle East and elsewhere, as evidenced by its ubiquity in the push to invade Libya in 2011 and Syria in 2013. Jared Cohen's former superior at the US State Department, Anne-Marie Slaughter, has called it “the most important shift in our conception of sovereignty since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648.” See her praise for the book Responsibility to Protect: The Global Moral Compact for the 21st Century, edited by Richard H. Cooper and Juliette Voïnov Kohler, on the website of the publisher Palgrave Macmillan, archive.today/0dmMq.For a critical essay on R2P see Noam Chomsky's statement on the doctrine to the UN General Assembly. Noam Chomsky, “Statement by Professor Noam Chomsky to the United Nations General Assembly Thematic Dialogue on Responsibility to Protect,” United Nations, New York, 23 July 2009, is.gd/bLx3uU.See also “Responsibility to protect: An idea whose time has come—and gone?” Economist, 23 July 2009, archive.today/K2WZJ.">7"With this context in mind, the tech giant's involvement with the weaponization of artificial intelligence is as predictable as it is troubling. At this juncture, it appears that Google is one of many giant silicon valley companies that can be considered a corporate, technological wing of the State's death apparatus.
Disobedient Media provided coverage of former Google and Alphabet executive Eric Schmidt, and his sudden departure from Google parent company Alphabet. At the time of the announcement, some press reports referenced Schmidt's strong interest in artificial intelligence as a possible factor in his resignation. The New York Post wrote that a source close to Schmidt said the move would: “Allow him to have a more 'hands-on role' in developing artificial intelligence for defense." With all of this in mind, Schmidt's participation in the United States' unelected military power structure is striking.
However, his role in the economy of death reaches even farther. Schmidt leads the Pentagon's Defense Initiative Advisory Board, which is also attended by the richest man on the planet, Jeff Bezos. Business Insider writes that additional members include Neil deGrasse Tyson, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Google executive Milo Medin, Instagram COO Marne Levine, and Aspen Institute CEO Walter Isaacson.
The membership of this 'advisory board' illustrates the crux of the technocracy's immersion in the unelected military power structure of the United States. As Disobedient Media previously reported, Bezos has also been suggested by legacy press as a future CIA Director.
Marne Levine's experience is hardly limited to Facebook and Instagram. According to the Defense Initiative Advisory Board, She is also a member of the Trilateral Commission, and: "Served in the Obama Administration as Chief of Staff of the National Economic Council (NEC) at the White House and Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. Previously, Marne was Director of Product Management for Revolution Money and Chief of Staff for Harvard University President Larry Summers. Marne began her career in 1993 at the United States Department of Treasury under President Bill Clinton where she held a number of leadership positions."
Even Levine's former superior Larry Summers is in on the artificial intelligence game, holding a position on the board of the private intelligence corporation, Premise Data. Summers served as Chief Economist for the World Bank in the early 1990's, was a friend and biographer of Henry Kissinger, was the 71st Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton Administration and is a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress, which was founded by John Podesta.
Meanwhile, Premise Data serves customers including USAID, The United Nations and multinational bank, Standard Chartered. In late 2016, ZeroHedge reported that Premise Data had emerged in association with an attempted smear against Julian Assange, a topic complex enough that it deserves a separate discussion. The value in describing just a few of the aforementioned connections stemming from the Defense Initiative Advisory Board is in the demonstration of the total immersion of corporate figures in the state apparatus, and their collective focus on artificial intelligence.
Some of these connections are depicted in the unfortunately busy chart, which still leaves out many connections. The most important aspect of these relationships is the direct link between the Pentagon's Defense Initiative Advisory Board and the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence fund through Reid Hoffman.
Given the seriousness of the situation and its potential repercussions, it is particularly unnerving that LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, a member of the Pentagon's Defense Advisory Board mentioned above, donated almost $10 million to the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund, described as dedicated to steering AI in a way that maximizes the benefits to society.
Hoffman was joined in his donation by Pierre Omidyar, the multi-billionaire founder of The Intercept, who donated approximately $10 million to the cause. Tech Crunch relates that the fund will support artificial intelligence "ethics and governance projects and activities," in the US and internationally.
Another primary donor to the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund included the Knight Foundation. The Foundation's President and CEO, Alberto Ibargüen, is the former Publisher of the Miami Herald and has served on the board of the Council on Foreign Relations. According to 'Ibargüen's profile with the Council on Foreign Relations, he is a former member of the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Foreign Policy, former chairman of the board of the World Wide Web Foundation and of the Newseum in Washington, DC. He is a member of the boards of PepsiCo, American Airlines and AOL.
Behind all the feel-good platitudes about moral guidelines for artificial intelligence, there lurks the hard reality that Hoffman is donating to a fund intended to determine the moral guidelines of a weaponized technology at the center of a new arms race, while sitting on the Pentagon's Defense Initiative Advisory Board with Bezos, Schmidt, Levine and the rest. Hoffman also served as a former COO and Executive Vice President of Paypal, with Fortune Magazine characterizing him as a member of what the outlet jokingly referred to as the "Paypal Mafia."
Reid Hoffman is photographed (center, back row) among those characterized by Fortune Magazine as the 'Paypal Mafia.'
Paypal was an instrumental part of the financial blockade against Wikileaks in 2010, which destroyed 95% of their revenue at that time. Wikileaks wrote of the basis for the attack on its finances: "The blockade came into force within ten days of the launch of Cablegate as part of a concerted US-based, political attack that included vitriol by senior right-wing politicians, including assassination calls against WikiLeaks staff."
That Paypal acted as a tool of the deep state's retaliation against Wikileaks for publishing US diplomatic cables is unquestionable. That important figures from Paypal's history also provide significant funding for the development of the "moral" governance of artificial intelligence should be a cause for concern.
With a member of the 'Paypal Mafia' and angel investor in Facebook simultaneously rubbing shoulders with Jeff Bezos on a Pentagon Advisory Board run by Eric Schmidt, one can see very clearly that the underlying purpose for the "Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund" and similar initiatives is to control the direction of the development of artificial intelligence for the benefit of unelected power structures which are now busily militarizing it for drone use.
Tech Crunch further noted that: "Hoffman and Omidyar, via his philanthropic investment fund, have each put in $10M. They’re joined by the journalist and arts-focused Knight Foundation, which contributed $5M. Other backers at this point are the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Jim Pallotta, founder of the Raptor Group, who have each committed $1M — though the aim is to grow the size of the fund further, as other funders join."
As an aside, the President of the Knight Foundation, Alberto Ibarguen, is reported to serve as a member and former board member of the Council on Foreign Relations, has served on the Secretary of State's Foreign Policy Advisory Committee, a group established during Hillary Clinton's term as Secretary of State. At this juncture, the philanthropic efforts to steer guidelines on artificial intelligence appears to amount to a thinly-veiled publicity stunt that ultimately serves the technocracy-fueled deep state.
The Bulletin also reports that analysis performed by artificial intelligence as part of Project Maven will be tailored for end-user needs, while "end users can prepare their organizations to make rapid and effective use of AI capabilities." This is particularly significant due to the findings made by this author and Suzie Dawson in our collaborative work on the Decipher You project, which analyzes never-before scrutinized Snowden Files.
One of the key focuses of that project centers on the customers of the NSA, which are not exclusively government bodies and include entities like the Federal Reserve. So the allusion to tailoring weaponized artificial-intelligence-generated-analysis for the "end-user" raises red flags immediately.
The Bulletin's report frames the use of artificial intelligence as part of drone warfare as helpful for "the fight against ISIS," while blithely ignoring the reality that drone operations result in the deaths of a vast number of civilians. Even legacy press like The New York Times admits that: "The results of some strikes have often turned out to be deeply troubling. Every independent investigation of the strikes has found far more civilian casualties than administration officials admit."
In this way, the richest men on the planet effectively control the parameters by which artificial intelligence will operate, and the average person should absolutely be concerned about the probability that the design will be in the interest of monopolistic corporations and unelected military power.
Those who are structuring the moral guidelines for artificial intelligence are part of the same military interests that are currently weaponizing it.