Google just released a set of ethical principles about how it will use AI technology

Greg Sandoval/Business Insider

Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks with reporters at the 2018 I/O developer conference

• Google has released what is effectively a rulebook for how the company will apply AI technology
• The seven principles include making sure that AI is applied to applications that are socially beneficial, safe and won't create unfair bias.
• This is Google's response to a conflict inside the company over management's controversial decision to build AI tools for the military. Last week, Gizmodo reported that Google cloud chief Diane Greene told employees that Google had decided to stop providing AI tech to the Pentagon.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai published a set of "ethical principles" on Thursday about how the company will work with artificial intelligence.

Pichai said that while AI technology provides consumers and businesses with many benefits, Google realizes the tech "will have a significant impact on society for many years to come" and that the managers "feel a deep responsibility to get this right."

Pichai said the AI applications will be screened to make sure that they are socially beneficial, won't create unfair bias, are safe, accountable to people, incorporate design principles, consistent with scientific excellence, and be made available for uses that maintain the previous principles.

The principles follow a conflict inside Google, pitting thousands of employees against management. These workers protested the company's involvement in Project Maven - the controversial collaboration between Google and the US Department of Defense. In March, news leaked that Google had quietly supplied AI technology to the Pentagon to help analyze drone video footage.

In April, more than 4,000 workers signed a petition demanding that Google's management cease work on Project Maven and promise to never again "build warfare technology." Soon after that, Gizmodo reported that a dozen or so Google employees had resigned in protest.

Read Pichai's full memo here.

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