Dispute over AI ethics: Google DeepMind employees rally against military contracts
In May, almost 200 Google DeepMind employees signed a letter urging the company to end its military contracts. TIME reports growing internal worries that DeepMind's technology is being sold to militaries engaged in conflicts, potentially breaching Google's AI policies. Google Cloud currently has contracts with Israel and the United States. Google claims its Nimbus contract with Israel isn't for military use, but employees find that claim too vague. The letter demands that access for military users be cut off and that new oversight measures be implemented. We do know that the US Air Force is testing DeepMind's AI technology for AI co-pilots. OpenAI is also working with the U.S. military on cybersecurity projects.
AI News Without the Hype – Curated by Humans
Subscribe to THE DECODER for ad-free reading, a weekly AI newsletter, our exclusive "AI Radar" frontier report six times a year, full archive access, and access to our comment section.
Subscribe nowRead on for the full picture.
Subscribe for hype-free coverage.
- Access to all THE DECODER articles.
- Read without distractions – no Google ads.
- Access to comments and community discussions.
- Weekly AI newsletter.
- 6 times a year: “AI Radar” – deep dives on key AI topics.
- Up to 25 % off on KI Pro online events.
- Access to our full ten-year archive.
- Get the latest AI news from The Decoder.