Google workers urge CEO to refuse classified AI work with Pentagon

Hundreds of Google employees are urging CEO Sundar Pichai to refuse to make the company’s artificial intelligence tools available for the Pentagon in classified settings.

In an open letter to the chief executive, Google workers assigned to AI systems voiced concerns about the tech giant’s ongoing negotiations with the U.S. Department of Defense, saying the technology not appropriate for “classified workloads.”

“We feel that our proximity to this technology creates a responsibility to highlight and prevent its most unethical and dangerous uses,” the letter read. “Therefore, we ask you to refuse to make our AI systems available for classified workloads.”

Neither Google nor the Pentagon immediately responded to CBS News’ request for comment on the letter. 

They fear that if made available for military applications, Google’s AI systems could be used in “inhumane or extremely harmful ways,” the employees wrote.

The letter cited lethal autonomous weapons and mass surveillance as examples of potentially harmful applications of AI. 

“Making the wrong call right now would cause irreparable damage to Google’s reputation, business and role in the world,” the letter added. 

Google is negotiating a possible deal with the Defense Department to deploy its AI in classified work, according to reporting from The Information. 

OpenAI earlier this year struck an agreement with the Pentagon, which agreed not to use Open AI technology for mass domestic surveillance or to direct autonomous weapons systems.