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A Google Researcher Says He's 'Ashamed' After the Company Signed a Pentagon Deal for Classified Work
More than 560 employees urged Sundar Pichai to block the classified work, while Google said the Pentagon deal amends an existing contract.
- Google signed a classified agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense on Monday, allowing the Pentagon to deploy Gemini AI models on secret networks for "any lawful government purpose."
- Hours before the deal's confirmation, more than 560 Google employees sent an open letter to CEO Sundar Pichai urging him to block Pentagon access, citing concerns about lethal autonomous weapons and mass surveillance.
- Senior Research Scientist Andreas Kirsch of Google DeepMind told Business Insider he felt "incredibly ashamed," describing the contract as a "worst-case version" of what employees had feared.
- A Google spokesperson stated the firm supports government agencies across classified and non-classified projects, emphasizing both parties "agree that the AI System is not intended for" domestic mass surveillance.
- The deal echoes Google's 2018 Project Maven crisis as OpenAI and Anthropic also pursue defense contracts within an AI infrastructure market projected to spend roughly $600 billion in 2026.
22 Articles
22 Articles
Despite the warning of several hundred engineers opposed to the military use of their AI, it seems that Google is closer to...
Google employee says he is ashamed of the company due to its secret military AI work
A Google DeepMind researcher has publicly criticised the company's reported Pentagon contract for classified AI work. The dispute has renewed questions over employee objections, military use and weakened AI safeguards.
'Incredibly Ashamed': Google DeepMind Scientists Revolt Over Secret Pentagon Deal to Use AI in Warfare
Google signed a classified agreement with the US Department of Defence on Monday, allowing the Pentagon to deploy its artificial intelligence on secret military networks, just hours after more than 600 of the company's own employees publicly demanded that CEO Sundar Pichai reject the deal. 'The Worst-Case Version' Andreas Kirsch, a research scientist at Google DeepMind, told Business Insider he was 'incredibly ashamed' after the deal was confirm…
Google inks Pentagon deal for classified AI work despite uproar from employees warning of ‘irreparable damage’
Google cut a deal with the Pentagon allowing use of its artificial intelligence models on classified systems – setting up a showdown with hundreds of employees who have demanded that CEO Sundar Pichai walk away from the partnership.
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