Google bails on US defense project, cites ethical concerns
- Summary:
- Google is pulling out of the JEDI cloud computing contract bid in the US. Is this another example of ethical activism coming into play?
Specifically Google has concerns around the potential uses of Artificial Intelligence as part of the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract. JEDI is massive deal, potentially running to ten years, that would involve transitioning classified defense data to a commercial cloud platform.
The contract has been mired in controversy as a result of the Pentagon’s decision to award the contract to a single contractor rather than breaking it up. That led to fears that such a contract structure favored Amazon Web Services.
Other potential providers have openly criticised and protested, including Oracle, whose co-CEO Safra Katz is believed to have raised the matter directly with President Donald Trump over dinner.
In a statement yesterday, Google alluded to this single winner issue:
Had the JEDI contract been open to multiple vendors, we would have submitted a compelling solution for portions of it. Google Cloud believes that a multi-cloud approach is in the best interest of government agencies, because it allows them to choose the right cloud for the right workload.
At a time when new technology is constantly becoming available, customers should have the ability to take advantage of that innovation. We will continue to pursue strategic work to help state, local and federal customers modernize their infrastructure and meet their mission critical requirements.
But it was the ethical angle that the firm chose to lead on to explain its decision to pull out of the bidding:
While we are working to support the US government with our cloud in many areas, we are not bidding on the JEDI contract because first, we couldn’t be assured that it would align with our AI Principles.
This is the second huge defense contract from which Google has withdrawn. After working with the US Airforce on its Project Maven drone AI initiative, an uprising of protest from Google employees led to the firm declining to proceed to a second contract.
The Google withdrawal is also the latest sign of the knock-on impact of the rise of ethical activism among tech industry employees. Both Microsoft and Salesforce have faced protests from staffers about their dealings with the US immigration authorities in the wake of the Trump administration policy of separating families at the border.
With Google out of the running, Amazon, Microsoft and Oracle look like the front-runners for JEDI.
Amazon has the highest number of necessary government security certifications, racked up as part of its deal with the CIA. But Microsoft yesterday announced that its Federal Cloud offerings will meet the requirements for high-level designation under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program by the end of 2018.
The firm also announced an expansions of Azure Secret Regions, an initiative designed specifically for dealing with highly classified information in the cloud. That would seem to be very well timed for a JEDI bid.
In a blog post, Julia White, Corporate Vice-President, Microsoft Azure, stated:
Microsoft is announcing the expansion of our FedRAMP Moderate coverage for our public cloud regions. A total of 50 services are now available, creating new opportunities across a broad array of federal agencies. Additionally, by the end of the calendar year Microsoft will enhance the impact level for our public cloud regions, and specifically for these 50 services, from FedRAMP Moderate to FedRAMP High. Microsoft continues to support more services at both FedRAMP Moderate and FedRAMP High impact levels than any other cloud provider.
By taking the broadest regulatory compliance approach in the industry, we’re making commercial innovation more accessible and easier for government to adopt. This means Azure public regions in the continental United States will support FedRAMP High applications for US Government agencies who are allowed by regulation to host their information in the public cloud this year. For those government agencies with citizenship requirements and more controlled access to certain types of data, Azure Government will continue to offer services at FedRAMP High, with the addition of the government cloud guarantees around heightened screening of personnel, management exclusively by US citizens, and other important protections.
My take
Interesting development. Cynics might argue that Google’s stance over Project Maven is unlikely to have improved its prospects for JEDI anyway, but it’s still another example of the complexities of managing ethical positions in business today. It also sits uncomfortably alongside the ongoing controversy about Google’s position when it comes to meeting the requirements of the Chinese authorities in order to crack that market…