Quick Take
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Around 300 Google DeepMind employees in the UK plan to unionise.
Workers aim to join the Communication Workers Union, citing ethical concerns.
Workers aren’t okay with AI being used in conflicts such as Gaza.
Around 300 Google DeepMind staffers in the UK are planning to unionise to challenge the tech giant’s decision to sell its artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to defence groups with purported ties to the Israeli government, according to a report in the Financial Times.
The workers are seeking to join the Communication Workers Union in the coming weeks. Some of the employees said they were feeling ‘duped’ by their work being used in an ongoing conflict.
“We’re putting two and two together and think the technology we’re developing is being used in the conflict [in Gaza]. This is basically cutting-edge AI that we’re providing to an ongoing conflict. People don’t want their work used like this,” one of the unnamed workers said.
The tech giant’s AI arm, which is being led by British Nobel laureate Sir Demis Hassabis, has come under strain from the parent company in recent months to find commercial uses for its powerful AI. The development also comes in the backdrop of Google dropping its pledge not to develop AI technologies that “cause or are likely to cause overall harm”, including weapons and surveillance.
Reports in recent weeks that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had used AI systems to generate targets for assassinations and attacks in the Gaza Strip has furthered the discontentment amongst the employees.
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Google fires employees
In May last year, Google came under scrutiny after it fired 28 employees who protested against the company’s cloud-computing contract with the Israeli government. Notably, Tel Aviv has a $1.2 billion cloud computing agreement with Google and Amazon, named Project Nimbus.
“Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behavior. After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety,” a Google spokesperson said at the time.