Google employees ask Sundar Pichai to say no to classified military AI use

Over 600 Google employees, including staff from its DeepMind AI lab and more than 20 principals, directors, and vice presidents, have signed a letter to CEO Sundar Pichai urging the company to reject any classified military use of its AI models. The letter, reported by The Washington Post, explicitly references a recent report by The Information that Google is in talks with the Pentagon to deploy its Gemini AI in classified environments. The employees argue that the only way to prevent Google from being associated with potential harms from military AI is to refuse all classified workloads, as such uses could occur without their knowledge or ability to stop them.

This internal revolt echoes Google's past controversy over Project Maven, a Pentagon drone imaging program that led to employee resignations and Google's eventual decision not to renew the contract. The current letter comes amid broader tensions in the tech industry over military AI partnerships. Anthropic is currently in a legal battle with the Pentagon over being designated a 'supply chain risk' after refusing to loosen guardrails on military use of its models. Meanwhile, Microsoft already has deals to provide AI services in classified environments, and OpenAI announced a renegotiated agreement with the Pentagon in February. Google itself had previously scrapped its promise not to develop AI weapons, making this employee pushback a critical test of the company's ethical stance.