AhlulBayt News Agency: Employees at Google DeepMind’s London office have launched efforts to unionize, driven by concerns over the company’s decision to provide artificial intelligence (AI) technology to defense entities and maintain ties with the Israeli regime.
According to PressTV, recent reports indicate that around 300 DeepMind workers have sought membership with the Communication Workers Union in the past few weeks. DeepMind employees initiated this move following Google’s revision of its AI Principles, which removed a key clause prohibiting the development of AI technologies that could “cause or are likely to cause overall harm,” particularly in weapons and surveillance systems violating “internationally accepted norms.”
The updated AI Principles now state that Google pursues AI “responsibly” and aligns with “widely accepted principles of international law and human rights,” but omit the explicit language regarding weapons and surveillance.
Tensions escalated between DeepMind and its parent company after whistleblower revelations suggested that Israel had used DeepMind’s technology to identify targets for assassinations and attacks in Gaza, where approximately 51,500 Palestinians have been killed. Following these disclosures, several DeepMind employees resigned in protest.
“We believe the technology we’re developing is being used in the [Gaza conflict],” said one engineer involved in the unionization effort. “This is cutting-edge AI being applied in an ongoing [war], and people don’t want their work misused in this way.”
For the unionization effort to succeed, it must be formally recognized through a vote by DeepMind employees in the UK, where the company has around 2,000 staff. If approved, the union would push for Google to cancel its military contracts.
“If Google continues to sell its technology for military purposes, employees will have the right to strike,” explained one of the union organizers. “Our hope is to steer the company away from any military contracts.”
The Israeli regime has already signed a $1.2 billion cloud computing contract with Google and Amazon, known as Project Nimbus.
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