Internal rebellion at Google. Over 600 employees of the Californian group have signed a letter, published on Monday, demanding that the group’s management stop providing its artificial intelligence (AI) models to the U.S. military for classified operations. According to The Information, Alphabet’s subsidiary is currently in discussions with the Pentagon regarding its AI.
Several company executives are among the signatories, according to a statement seen by AFP.
“As it stands, there is no way to ensure that our tools will not be used to cause terrible harm or infringe on individual freedoms, out of sight,” commented one of the employees, whose name was not disclosed, in the statement.
The Department of Defense is seeking to diversify its AI as it still relies, for now, on that of Anthropic, with which it is in dispute. At the end of February, the Trump administration decreed the termination of all contracts with the Californian startup, a decision contested in court by Anthropic.
The strength in past internal movements
It then reached an agreement with OpenAI to integrate its models into classified operations, but the process will take several months. Like Anthropic, Google has requested that its AI not be used for mass surveillance in the U.S. or for lethal attacks. However, the government believes that it is sufficient for them to commit to acting within the bounds of the law.
Google is already a provider for the Department of Defense, but for non-classified activities.
In 2018, an internal movement led the group to withdraw from participating in the Maven project, which used AI to analyze images collected by drones.
