By Roman Aglaganov
Some Google DeepMind staff are leaving over the company’s military contracts, the BBC reported on 21 October. It spoke to several people who had resigned or were in the process of leaving.
Who left, and why
Sofia Liguori, a research engineer in London, resigned this week after three years, citing Google’s growing work with the US and Israeli militaries. “Realising my company is pushing more and more for AI systems in military operations makes me feel ashamed to work at Google,” she told the BBC, speaking in a personal capacity and despite a contract that restricts her from doing so.
Andreas Kirsch, an AI researcher, resigned earlier in October. He said Google’s governance was not “sufficient or meaningful enough” for deploying AI in military and classified settings, and that Google “seems to have no right to control or veto how the Pentagon uses its AI”. Current employees, speaking anonymously, said staff were afraid to speak out.
Google’s response
A Google spokesperson said the company follows “a consistent process” for public-sector contracts, “including compliance with our acceptable use policies and AI principles”, and has channels for employees to raise concerns and policies against retaliation.
The contracts
Google signed a contract this year that lets the US military use its AI for classified work. According to the BBC, it allows use for “any lawful government purpose”, and says the models should not be used for domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weapons “without appropriate human oversight and control”. OpenAI, Amazon, Microsoft, SpaceX, Oracle, Nvidia and the start-up Reflection signed similar deals.
Critics question whether that oversight is real when AI speeds up decisions. Sarah Shoker, formerly head of OpenAI’s geopolitics team, told the BBC that with hundreds of AI-selected targets and little time, “it is almost impossible for a human operator to meaningfully review the AI’s outputs for errors.”
Why it matters
Employees are one of the few checks on how AI companies use their technology, and in 2018 Google staff protests helped end its work on the Pentagon’s Project Maven. This time, the company has kept its contracts, and the people objecting are leaving rather than changing policy.
