More than 600 Google employees have signed a letter to the company’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, demanding a ban on the use of the Gemini neural network developed by Google in US Department of Defense projects involving classified data.
The authors of the letter expressed concern over talks between the corporation and the Pentagon. “We are deeply troubled by the ongoing negotiations between Google and the US Department of Defense. As people working on artificial intelligence, we know these systems can centralise power and that they make mistakes,” the letter says.
The employees warn that such technologies could be used to control lethal weapons, surveil civilians, and carry out other tasks with grave consequences. Particular concern surrounds the use of AI in work involving classified information to which developers themselves will have no oversight, which, in their view, makes it harder to prevent possible abuse.
The debate in the United States over the military use of artificial intelligence intensified after the Pentagon terminated its contracts with Anthropic in February. That came after the company demanded guarantees that its technologies would not be used to control weapons systems.
The decision fuelled speculation that the US military is considering such scenarios and sharpened scrutiny of other technology companies working with the Pentagon, including Google and OpenAI.