Schmidt’s new venture aims to combine artificial intelligence and defense technology to assist Ukraine in its ongoing war against Russia.
Schmidt gave a speech at Stanford University in April, describing how Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine affected him. “It drove me crazy to see the Russians using tanks to destroy apartment buildings where old people and children were,” he said.
Schmidt, who was Google’s CEO from 2001 to 2011, is working with Udacity CEO Sebastian Thrun on a new company called White Stork that aims to do two things: use artificial intelligence for robotic warfare in complex and powerful ways, and reduce the cost of robots.
Last week, the university posted a video of Schmidt’s lecture at Stanford in April on its YouTube channel, according to Business Insider. The talk quickly went viral but has since been deleted.
In his speech, Schmidt reportedly said that White Stork would mass-produce drones equipped with artificial intelligence to detect targets, thus eliminating the need for ground combat with tanks, artillery and mortars.
In a clip of the speech, currently on X and previously widely circulated on Twitter, Schmidt says: “The whole theory of the army is tanks, artillery and mortars, and we can eliminate those and punish attacks.”
Schmidt said he is now a licensed arms dealer “because of the way the system works.” He added: “A computer scientist, a businessman, an arms dealer. I don’t recommend that as a career, I’m going to stick to artificial intelligence.”
“We do this privately because of the way the law works and everything is legal with the support of the government, so they go directly to Ukraine and then join the war,” Schmidt added.
The war between Russia and Ukraine, which began in February 2022, has been going on for almost two and a half years.
In the latest development, Ukrainian forces have attacked a third bridge in the Russian Kursk region. According to Ukraine, the ongoing offensive in the Kursk region aims to create a “security zone” and end the war.
Ukraine’s ongoing operation in Kursk is considered the largest attack on Russia since World War II.
