Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, has announced that his new company, White Stork, plans to help Ukraine by developing AI-powered attack drones. According to a report from Business Insider (BI), Schmidt’s startup is working on creating drones that can identify and target enemies on their own, reducing the need for traditional ground combat.
In an April lecture at Stanford University, Schmidt expressed his anger over the destruction caused by Russian forces in Ukraine. “Watching the Russians use tanks to destroy apartment buildings with little old ladies and kids just drove me crazy,” Schmidt said, according to the BI report.
Schmidt, who is now a licensed arms dealer, joked, “A computer scientist, businessman, arms dealer. I do not recommend this career path; I’d stick with AI,” as quoted by the report.
White Stork, which Schmidt co-founded with Udacity CEO Sebastian Thrun, aims to mass-produce high-tech drones at a lower cost. Schmidt highlighted that with government support, these drones would be sent directly to Ukraine to “fight the war,” according to the report.
Schmidt, who previously chaired the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence and led Google from 2001 to 2011, has also been in the news for his views on Google’s approach to artificial intelligence. He recently said that Google is losing the AI race, partly due to remote work policies.
“Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning,” Schmidt said during a talk at Stanford University, as per a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report. “The reason startups succeed is because people work like hell,” he added.
Schmidt’s comments were made during a wide-ranging discussion at Stanford, where he was asked about Google competing with OpenAI.
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