Reference News Network, July 14 report: The German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung website published an article titled "Why Silicon Valley is Allying with Arms Companies" on July 7. The authors are Anna-Sophie Kühne and Alexander Wulfes. The full text is as follows:

When Andrew Bosworth took the oath of office and was appointed a lieutenant colonel under the leadership of the highest-ranking general in the U.S. Army, he said it was "the greatest honor of his life." Bosworth is no ordinary person. As the Chief Technology Officer of Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Bosworth is one of Mark Zuckerberg's close friends. In June this year, Bosworth joined a newly formed reserve unit of the Army along with executives from Palantir, the Open AI Research Center (OpenAI), and the AI company DeepMind. This unit aims to combine "technical expertise with military innovation."

Silicon Valley executives are now wearing camouflage uniforms — which may be the most obvious sign of the cultural change happening in the American tech industry.

For a long time, Silicon Valley has maintained its image as a "cradle of progress" — not only in the technological sense, but also in the social sense. New technology should bring more wealth to everyone, and most importantly, should serve the right cause — usually meaning enabling communication between people and making their lives more convenient in all aspects. Everything should be peaceful and equal, like the spacious and green company headquarters under the California sun.

Now, Silicon Valley is moving away from this image. It's not just individual managers in Silicon Valley who are donning uniforms; tech companies have also sensed new business opportunities brought by the arms race.

For example, Meta Platforms announced a collaboration with the arms company Anduril this spring, including the development of helmets and glasses equipped with special software and sensors to enhance soldiers' auditory and visual perception. Moreover, Meta has hired former Pentagon employees familiar with the complex procurement process of the Department of Defense. Bosworth, the Chief Technology Officer, said in June that opening up to the arms industry is a "cultural change."

OpenAI also announced a partnership with Anduril last year. The main area of cooperation is AI-based anti-drone systems. OpenAI revised its previous strict guidelines that limited collaboration with the military. Recently, the company also won a contract from the U.S. Department of Defense.

Even Google — a company long regarded by many as a pioneer of the humanistic movement in Silicon Valley — is no longer keeping its distance from the military. The company will provide artificial intelligence software to the world's largest arms company, Lockheed Martin. In February, Google removed clauses from its self-established artificial intelligence guidelines that would hinder arms projects. This removal happened a few weeks after Donald Trump took office.

Employees did not strongly protest. In fact, this cooperation does not align with Silicon Valley's traditional liberalist ideals. Providing weapon systems to the government is not something many employees would naturally agree with — at least not for a long time.

In 2018, a contract between Google and the U.S. Department of Defense was exposed, involving a project that used Google's artificial intelligence technology to analyze images taken by drones. Thousands of Google employees signed a letter to CEO Sundar Pichai protesting. They wrote, "We believe Google should not engage in activities related to war," and cited Google's former motto, "Don't be evil." Google eventually yielded to its employees who held traditional views and announced it would not renew the contract.

Now, we rarely hear about such protests. Cultural anthropologist Roberto González wrote in a report for Brown University in the United States that the military-industrial complex is expanding from Washington D.C. to Silicon Valley — and this process has not triggered significant reactions.

However, tech companies were not always distant from the military. González wrote that between 2018 and 2022, the contracts signed between Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet with the military and intelligence agencies alone amounted to $28 billion — this is just a conservative estimate. He stated that over $100 billion in venture capital funding flowed into military startups between 2021 and 2023.

Personal relationships have facilitated the connection between these two fields. González wrote: "After leaving public office, dozens of senior defense officials entered defense-related venture capital or private equity companies and served as executives or consultants there." (Translated by Song Yuhao)

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7526854752404111918/

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