A Google DeepMind employee said that he was “incredibly ashamed” to be a researcher at the company after it signed a deal with the Pentagon for classified operations.
“I’m speechless at Google signing a deal to use our AI models for classified tasks. Frankly, it is shameful,” Andreas Kirsch, a research scientist at Google DeepMind working on AI, wrote in a Tuesday post on X.
Kirsch cited a Monday report from The Information that Google had signed a deal allowing the Department of Defense to use its AI technology in classified settings. More than 600 Google employees had earlier sent a letter urging CEO Sundar Pichai to prevent the Pentagon from using the company’s AI for such work.
“When I went to bed yesterday, I was hopeful that the employee letter would have an effect and give us pause to consider,” Kirsch told Business Insider over text message. “This morning I woke up to a worst-case version of the contract being signed by Google in the meantime.”
A Google spokesperson told Business Insider that the agreement for classified work was an amendment to an existing contract. Google signed a deal with the Pentagon late last year for its AI to be used for unclassified work.
“We support government agencies across both classified and non-classified projects, applying our expertise to areas like logistics, cybersecurity, diplomatic translation, fleet maintenance, and the defense of critical infrastructure,” the spokesperson said.
They added: “We remain committed to the private and public sector consensus that AI should not be used for domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weaponry without appropriate human oversight.”
Kirsch told Business Insider that he was disappointed that Google proceeded with the deal.
“It’s a shame that one of the biggest and brightest tech companies avoided having an honest discussion about this when regulations and laws haven’t had time to catch up yet, and is not willing to take a stand when it wouldn’t cost it much given the size of the contract vs its overall revenue and profits,” Kirsch told Business Insider.
He added: “I personally feel incredibly ashamed right now to be Senior Research Scientist at Google DeepMind and I wonder how I’m supposed to do my work today.”
Googlers asked Pichai not to sign a deal
The letter sent by Google employees on Monday cited concerns about using AI in areas such as lethal autonomous weapons and mass surveillance.
“As people working on AI, we know that these systems can centralize power and that they do make mistakes,” the employees wrote in the letter, which was reviewed by Business Insider.
“We feel that our proximity to this technology creates a responsibility to highlight and prevent its most unethical and dangerous uses.”
Several Google employees told Business Insider on Tuesday that they were dismayed to learn Google had signed the deal for classified operations. One said they were not surprised.
A chief concern among staff is that Google will not be able to control what the Department of Defense ultimately does with the technology in a classified setting.
Last year, Google updated its AI principles to remove a pledge that it would not use AI for weapons or surveillance. Executives at Google DeepMind told staff in a January meeting that they should expect more defense deals in the future.
“The removal of the pledges were supposed to allow for more nuanced consideration,” Kirsch told Business Insider. “I don’t see nuance here in allowing all lawful use, which, according to legal scholars, includes autonomous weapons and mass surveillance as we understand it, and not having real guardrails except for fake-pretend ones.”
In his post on X, Kirsch referred to a similar agreement between OpenAI and the Pentagon for classified systems.
“Honestly, after all the scrutiny OpenAI’s contract has received, I do not understand how we can sign an even weaker contract and not expect this to be seen as myopic and greedy dealings that lose trust,” he wrote.
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