How One AI Startup Decided to Embrace Military Work, Despite Controversy

A few years ago, Clarifai, a five-year old startup that makes image-recognition software, held a discussion among its workers about two kinds of controversial business partners. The first was the pornography industry, where several companies had expressed interest in automated analysis that would classify videos according to the specific acts in each scene. The second was the military. At the time, Clarifai decided to avoid both kinds of contracts, according to three people with knowledge of the conversation.

Clarifai continues to bat away the smut peddlers. But Matt Zeiler, its founder and chief executive, is now embracing defense work. On Thursday, the New York-based company is announcing the formation of a subsidiary in Washington, D.C. called Neural Net One, which will exclusively handle government work. It will pursue defense and intelligence contracts, as well as work in disaster relief, border security, and environmental monitoring.