Exclusive: Workers at Google DeepMind Push Company to Drop Military Contracts

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses a dispute within Google between workers in its AI division, DeepMind, and its Cloud business over the company's contracts with military organizations. Nearly 200 DeepMind workers signed a letter calling on Google to drop these military contracts, citing concerns that the technology is being used for military purposes, which they say violates Google's own AI principles.

🙋 Q&A

[01] The DeepMind Worker Letter

1. What are the key concerns raised in the letter signed by DeepMind workers?

• The letter expresses concern over Google's contracts with military organizations, stating that any involvement with the military and weapon manufacturing "impacts our position as leaders in ethical and responsible AI, and goes against our mission statement and stated AI Principles."
• The letter calls on DeepMind's leaders to investigate allegations that militaries and weapons manufacturers are Google Cloud users, terminate access to DeepMind technology for military users, and set up a new governance body to prevent DeepMind technology from being used by military clients in the future.

2. How has Google responded to the letter?

• According to the article, Google has not taken any of the actions requested in the letter, and the workers say they have "received no meaningful response from leadership" and are "growing increasingly frustrated."
• Google has stated that the Nimbus contract with the Israeli government is for commercial cloud services, not for "highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services." However, the letter signatories say this response "does not deny the allegations that its technology enables any form of violence or enables surveillance violating internationally accepted norms."

[02] The History and Relationship between DeepMind and Google

1. What was the promise made to DeepMind when it was acquired by Google in 2014? When DeepMind was acquired by Google in 2014, the lab's leaders extracted a promise that their AI technology would never be used for military or surveillance purposes.

2. How has the relationship between DeepMind and Google evolved over time?

• Initially, DeepMind operated with a high degree of independence from Google's California headquarters.
• But as the AI race heated up, DeepMind was drawn more tightly into Google proper.
• A bid by DeepMind's leaders in 2021 to secure more autonomy failed, and in 2023 it merged with Google's other AI team, Google Brain, bringing it closer to the heart of the tech giant.
• An independent ethics board that DeepMind leaders hoped would govern the uses of the AI lab's technology ultimately met only once and was soon replaced by an umbrella Google ethics policy, the AI Principles.

3. How have the Google AI Principles impacted the use of DeepMind technology?

• The AI Principles promise that Google will not develop AI that is likely to cause "overall harm," but they explicitly allow the company to develop technologies that may cause harm if it concludes "that the benefits substantially outweigh the risks."
• The AI Principles also do not rule out selling Google's AI, including DeepMind technology, to military clients.
• As a result, DeepMind technology has been bundled into Google's Cloud software and sold to militaries and governments, including Israel and its Ministry of Defense.