Ng, however, was baffled by the Project Maven protestors, he told an audience largely made up of veterans.
“Frankly, when the Project Maven thing went down … A lot of you are going out, willing to shed blood for our country to protect us all,” said Ng. “So how the heck can an American company refuse to help our own service people that are out there, fighting for us?”
Ng did not work at Google when the Project Maven protests happened, but he did play a key role in shaping Google’s efforts around AI and neural networks. Today, Ng leads an AI-focused venture studio and AI fund, and speaks out frequently about AI policy.