Project Maven Quotes

“She emphasized there were ethical guardrails, trying to persuade Greene to seal the deal: “It’s on the books: there has to be a human involved and this project has nothing to do with autonomous weapons.” That has not stayed true. I learned during the research for this book that Maven is indeed involved in America’s development of autonomous weapons. (See chapter 25.) The Pentagon’s largely secret initiative to fashion, test, and deliver thousands of its own killer robots included efforts to incorporate Maven algorithms so drones can identify and select targets under their own steam—and kill. (I also learned that Maven ran Gorgon Stare algorithms produced by Google in combat in Afghanistan in 2018; see chapter 10.) But that was seven years into the future. Terminator still didn’t exist yet. Google signed.”
― Katrina Manson, Project Maven: A Marine Colonel, His Team, and the Dawn of AI Warfare

“One of Cukor’s most controversial decisions was to push the US military to use minimally tested systems in hot wars. The colonel always argued getting AI on the battlefield, before it was ready or reliable, was the only way to improve it and develop the trust and know-how of a new generation of fighters in using it.”
― Katrina Manson, Project Maven: A Marine Colonel, His Team, and the Dawn of AI Warfare