Pichai held talks with a group of civilian and military leaders from the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, which is in charge of overseeing the drone project, dubbed Project Maven, last week, the Washington Post newspaper reported on Friday, citing two people familiar with the meeting, speaking on the conditions of anonymity.
According to the outlet, a spokesperson for Google has not provided an immediate comment on the issue while a Pentagon spokesperson said the DoD did not comment on officials’ private meetings.
READ MORE: Google Has Dropped Out for Now, But Lethal AI 'Inevitable'
In June, the Gizmondo science news outlet reported that the high-tech company did not plan to renew its contract on Project Maven after it expires in 2019.
In June, Pichai set new strict ethical guidelines for the company which ban the use of AI technology in weapons.
Over the past years, various scientists, engineers, inventors, and human rights activists have called for a ban on the development of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) technology and use of AI in weapons.