It's been nearly three months since many Google employees -- and the public -- learned about the company's decision to provide artificial intelligence to a controversial military pilot program known as Project Maven, which aims to speed up analysis of drone footage by automatically classifying images of objects and people.
三个月前,谷歌要参与一个带有争议性的军事项目Project Maven的消息流出,引发了部分员工及公众的担忧,该项目旨在通过自动分类动物和人类的图像来加速无人机影像分析速度。
Now, about a dozen Google employees are resigning in protest over the company's continued involvement in Maven.
而现在,12名谷歌员工以辞职的形式,对公司继续参与Project Maven表示了抗议。
The resigning employees' frustrations1 range from particular ethical2 concerns over the use of artificial intelligence in drone warfare3 to broader worries about Google's political decisions -- and the erosion of user trust that could result from these actions.
从无人机战争中人工智能使用的特定道德担忧,在延伸到对谷歌政治决策的担心,辞职员工情绪沮丧,他们认为这些行为可能会导致用户信任的下降。
Many of them have written accounts of their decisions to leave the company, and their stories have been gathered and shared in an internal document.
他们中的许多人都已经写好了离开公司的决定,他们的事迹也已经被收集和分享在一份内部文件中。
为抵制军事项目合作 十几名谷歌员工正集体请辞
The employees who are resigning in protest, several of whom discussed their decision to leave with Gizmodo, say that executives have become less transparent4 with their workforce5 about controversial business decisions and seem less interested in listening to workers' objections than they once did.
辞职的员工们表示,高管们对有争议的商业决策的态度已经变得不那么透明了,他们似乎不太愿意听取员工的反对意见。
In the case of Maven, Google is helping6 the Defense7 Department implement8 machine learning to classify images gathered by drones. But some employees believe humans, not algorithms, should be responsible for this sensitive and potentially lethal9 work—and that Google shouldn't be involved in military work at all.
以Maven项目为例子,谷歌正在帮助国防部实现将无人机收集的图像进行分类的机器学习。但是一些员工认为,因为最终要为带来的敏感和潜在的致命工作担责的不是算法本身,而是创造它们的人,谷歌不应该参与军事工作。
Historically, Google has promoted an open culture that encourages employees to challenge and debate product decisions. But some employees feel that their leadership no longer as attentive10 to their concerns, leaving them to face the fallout.
从历史上看,谷歌促进了一种开放的文化,鼓励员工挑战和讨论产品决策。但一些员工认为,他们的领导不再关注他们的担忧,而是让他们面对后果。
"Over the last couple of months, I've been less and less impressed with the response and the way people's concerns are being treated and listened to," one employee who resigned said.
一位辞职的员工表示:“在过去的几个月里,我越来越对公司在回应员工意见时的态度感到失望。”
1 frustrations [frʌst'reɪʃnz] 第8级 | |
挫折( frustration的名词复数 ); 失败; 挫败; 失意 | |
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2 ethical [ˈeθɪkl] 第8级 | |
adj.伦理的,道德的,合乎道德的 | |
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3 warfare [ˈwɔ:feə(r)] 第7级 | |
n.战争(状态);斗争;冲突 | |
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4 transparent [trænsˈpærənt] 第7级 | |
adj.明显的,无疑的;透明的 | |
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5 workforce [ˈwɜ:kfɔ:s] 第8级 | |
n.劳动大军,劳动力 | |
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6 helping [ˈhelpɪŋ] 第7级 | |
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的 | |
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7 defense [dɪ'fens] 第7级 | |
n.防御,保卫;[pl.]防务工事;辩护,答辩 | |
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8 implement [ˈɪmplɪment] 第7级 | |
n.(pl.)工具,器具;vt.实行,实施,执行 | |
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