Sundar Pichai—Withdrew Google from Project Maven military AI drone contract after 3,000+ employee protests
After over 3,000 Google employees signed an internal letter to CEO Sundar Pichai demanding cancellation of the Pentagon's Project Maven (AI for analyzing drone surveillance footage), Google announced it would not renew the contract when it expired in 2019. The decision was reactive - Pichai responded to massive internal pressure rather than proactively withdrawing. This directly led to the creation of Google's AI Principles.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Safety | +toward | secondary | +0.50 |
| Military & Defense Contracts | -against | primary | +1.00 |
| Tech Worker Organizing | +toward | secondary | +0.50 |
| Overall incident score = | +0.429 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.57)× agency (reactive ×0.75)
Evidence (1 signal)
Over 3,000 Google employees signed letter to Pichai protesting Project Maven Pentagon partnership
Google employees signed an internal memo asking CEO Sundar Pichai to cancel Project Maven and enforce a policy against developing warfare technology. Google subsequently announced it would not renew the contract.