A former top U.S. Defense Department official is questioning the morality of Google's decision not to renew a partnership with the Pentagon. Former Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work said Tuesday, "I believe the Google employees have created a moral hazard for themselves." Google announced earlier this month that it would not renew its contract for Project Maven, after 13 employees resigned and more than 4,600 employees signed a petition objecting to their work being used for warfare. Project Maven seeks to use artificial intelligence (AI) to help detect and identify images captured using drones. Many of the Google employees who objected to the project cited the tech firm's principle of ensuring its products are not used to do harm. But Work, who served as deputy defense secretary from 2014 through July 2017, described Google's thinking as short-sighted. "It might wind up with us taking a shot, but it could easily save lives," he told an audience at the Defense One Tech Summit in Washington. Work also described Google as hypocritical, given the company's endeavors with other countries, such as China. "Google has opened an AI [artificial intelligence] center in China," he said. "Anything that's going on in the AI center in China is going to the Chinese government and then will ultimately end up in the hands of the Chinese military." The Pentagon's Project Maven had an initial budget of about $70 million.Google officials had told employees the company was earning less than $10 million, though the deal could lead to additional work. VOA has asked Google for a response, but has received no reply.