Over 600 Google employees have signed a letter, published this Monday, demanding that the company’s management stop providing its artificial intelligence (AI) models to the American military for classified operations. According to The Information website, 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.
No mass surveillance in the United States or deadly attacks
“In fact, there is no way to ensure that our tools will not be used to cause terrible harm or infringe on individual liberties, far from the public eye,” commented one of the employees, whose name was not revealed, in the statement.
The Department of Defense is seeking to diversify its AI as it still depends on that of Anthropic, with which it is in dispute.
In late February, the Trump administration ordered the termination of all contracts with the California-based startup, a decision challenged in court by Anthropic.
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 stipulated that its AI cannot be used for mass surveillance in the United States or for deadly attacks.
However, the government believes it is sufficient for Google to commit to acting within the confines of the law. Google is already a provider to the Department of Defense, but for non-classified activities.
In 2018, an internal movement led the group to withdraw from participating in Project Maven, which used AI to analyze images collected by drones.
