137

Google DeepMind workers protest over Israeli military contracts (www.hrgrapevine.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by solo@slrpnk.net to c/world@lemmy.world

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

top 9 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[-] nkat2112@sh.itjust.works 31 points 2 weeks ago

The intro:

Researchers at Google’s AI arm DeepMind, continue to raise alarm bells over the potential military applications of their work, particularly in relation to contracts with the Israeli government.

According to sources, at least 200 employees at Google DeepMind have expressed deep reservations about their parent company's reported defense contracts, in particular its $1.2billion agreement to supply Israel with cloud computing services called Project Nimbus.

The controversy came to light when an internal letter, dated May 16, began circulating within the organization. The memo, signed by a significant number of staff members, highlighted growing unease about the company's alleged involvement with military organizations.

The letter points to reports that the Israeli military uses AI for mass surveillance and to select bombing targets in Gaza, with Israeli weapon firms mandated by the government to purchase cloud services from Google and Amazon.

Further down:

The situation is particularly sensitive given the history between DeepMind and its parent company. When the AI lab was acquired by Google in 2014, assurances were made that its technology would never be used for military or surveillance purposes.

We owe a debt of gratitude to the brave souls that stand up for what is right.

[-] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml 16 points 2 weeks ago

Hopefully it goes better than when Unity internally resisted against military contracts. Their response to us was to restrict how we could communicate, stall until we lost steam, fire select people for code of conduct, and freeze any internal discourse that got too anti military but let the pro military ones run wild

[-] tiefling@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Google has been retaliating against anyone who protests Project Nimbus. They even called the cops on a group of protesters for doing a sit-in in a public commons, then fired everyone without hesitation.

A lot of the No Tech For Apartheid members are also part of the union, so they're extra motivated to go after them

[-] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 weeks ago

Sounds like it is not going to go better :/ I hope they can keep up the fight

[-] machineLearner@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

unfortunately military contracting makes a lottt of money

[-] solo@slrpnk.net 15 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

And another relevant article:

Google DeepMind employees ask the company to stop providing AI tech to the military

Edit: And a podcast No Tech for Apartheid w/ Mohammad Khatami & Gabi Schubiner

[-] Deceptichum@quokk.au 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Google: Be Evil

[-] Prior_Industry@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago

Well that's the next round of layoffs sorted then

this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2024

137 points (97.2% liked)

World News

38554 readers

2614 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.