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Employees at Google’s UK-based DeepMind have formally chosen to form a labor union. According to The Guardian, the staff is submitting a letter to company leadership requesting official recognition of the Communication Workers Union and Unite the Union as their bargaining representatives. This decision, made in April, stems from concerns over a potential agreement between Google and the U.S. Department of Defense. Employees pointed to the U.S. government’s “capricious Iran war” and its feud with Anthropic as proof that the department is “not a responsible partner.”
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Last week, the Pentagon revealed it had signed agreements with several top AI firms, including Google. These contracts permit the Defense Department to utilize the AI technologies for “any lawful use.” Reports from The Information indicate that while the agreements prohibit the government from using the tech for domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weapons without proper human oversight, Google and other firms retain “no right to control or veto” how the government deploys their AI tools.
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Google Gemini and other AI systems included in the contract were created by a consolidated AI team that encompasses DeepMind staff. Some employees told The Guardian they are worried their creations are aiding the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Google reportedly worked with the IDF to broaden access to its AI tools and signed a $1.2 billion cloud computing contract with the Israeli government in 2021.
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According to The Guardian, the workers aim to organize to pressure Google into pledging not to develop technology “whose primary purpose is to cause harm or injury to people.” They also seek the establishment of an independent ethics oversight committee and the right to decline participation in specific projects on moral grounds.