Google owner drops promise not to use AI for weapons

A Google blogpost argued that since the company first published its AI principles in 2018, the technology had evolved rapidly.
Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

The Google owner, Alphabet, has dropped its promise not to use artificial intelligence for purposes such as developing weapons and surveillance tools.

The US technology company said on Tuesday, just before it reported lower-than-forecast earnings, that it had updated its ethical guidelines around AI, and they no longer referred to not pursuing technologies that could “cause or are likely to cause overall harm”.