The ‘father of the internet’ says that Google employee backlash to its defense work was just ‘a lot of misunderstanding’ (GOOGL)

Troy Wolverton/Business Insider

• Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the internet, this week defended Google’s work on Project Maven — its controversial pilot program with the Pentagon. 
• Employee objections to the work, which involved developing artificial-intelligence technologies for use by the Defense Department, were based on a misunderstanding of the nature of the work, said Cerf, who is Google’s chief internet evangelist.
• But the company could have been more transparent about what it was doing, he acknowledged.

If you ask Vint Cerf, the protests at Google about its contract to help develop artificial-intelligence technologies for the military can be chalked up to a misunderstanding.

Employees that objected to the company’s work for the Defense Department didn’t really understand the nature of the work or its benefits, Cerf, a vice president at the search giant and its chief internet evangelist, told Business Insider this week at the “Our People-Centered Digital Future” conference in San Jose.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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