Project Maven: Nearly a dozen Google employees have reportedly quit in protest

Over 3,000 Google employees signed a protest letter in April. Now, a few are reportedly walking out.

Sean Hollister Senior Editor / Reviews

When his parents denied him a Super NES, he got mad. When they traded a prize Sega Genesis for a 2400 baud modem, he got even. Years of Internet shareware, eBay'd possessions and video game testing jobs after that, he joined Engadget. He helped found The Verge, and later served as Gizmodo's reviews editor. When he's not madly testing laptops, apps, virtual reality experiences, and whatever new gadget will supposedly change the world, he likes to kick back with some games, a good Nerf blaster, and a bottle of Tejava.

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Sean Hollister

May 14, 2018 5:21 p.m. PT

Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Stephen Shankland/CNET

Remember when 3,100 Google employees signed a protest letter over the use of Google's machine learning algorithms to help drones identify and track objects for the US Department of Defense?

If not, you'd better start by reading this story from April.

If so, we recommend you check this out instead: Gizmodo reports that "around a dozen" Google employees are now quitting their jobs to protest Google's continued actions.

While Google previously assured employees that its partnership with the Pentagon is "specifically scoped to be for non-offensive purposes" and only uses "open-source object recognition software available to any Google Cloud customer," that reportedly wasn't enough for these employees, and the Gizmodo story tries to explain their thought process.

Since all the employees spoke to Gizmodo anonymously, we haven't been able to independently confirm the report. Google didn't respond to two requests for comment.

According to a New York Times report, Amazon and Microsoft also provide services for the US military.