Deepmind UK staff aims to unionize and challenge Israel’s defense agreements and links

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The UK Google Deepmind staff seeks to unionize to try to challenge the company’s decision to sell their artificial intelligence technologies to defense groups and links with the Israeli government.

Around 300 London employees from the Giant Tech Giant’s Ar Arm, led by the Nobel Nobel Prize, Sir Demis Hassabis, have tried to join the Communication Workers’ Union in recent weeks, according to three people informed about the movement.

Effort creates a new tension in Deepmind, which their corporate parents are pushing Find commercial uses By his powerful, Hassabis recently suggested that companies in democratic countries should work together to support national security.

The passage to Unionise follows an increasing displeasure with the company after Google had a commitment in February not to develop AS technologies that “cause or probably cause general damage”, including weapons and surveillance.

Three people involved in the Unionisation Drive said that the media report that Google sells its services in the cloud and the AI ​​technology in the Israeli Ministry of Defense has also provoked restlessness. The Israeli government has a cloud computer agreement of $ 1.2 million with Google and Amazon, called Project Nimbus.

A tension more caused by the media report That Israel’s defense forces have used AI systems to generate goals for killings and attacks on the Gaza Strip, although it is unclear whether the IDF uses software commercially purchased for these purposes or building their own. The IDF did not respond to a comment request.

“We are joining two and two and we think that the technology we develop is used in the conflict (in Gaza),” said an engineer involved in the effort of unionization. “It’s basically about the avant -garde AI we are providing continuous conflict. People don’t want their job to be used like this.”

“People feel fit,” the person added.

According to FT -seen correspondence, Five Deepmind’s employees have abandoned for the last two months, citing the Israeli cloud computing agreement and Google’s reversal of the existing commitments around the use of their AI. In the United States, Google fired some staff to stage protests for the Nimbus project.

In May 2024, Deepmind’s staff sent a letter The company’s leadership requested that it leave its military contracts and have some meetings with management, but their applications have been denied.

The effort to organize now must be recognized by the company, through a vote among Deepmind’s employees in the United Kingdom. AI unit has about 2,000 employees in the United Kingdom.

A Google spokesman said: “Our approach is and has always been to develop and deploy the AI ​​in a responsibility. We encourage the construction and open dialogue with all our employees. In the United Kingdom and the whole world, the Googlers have been part of representative groups of employees, work tips and unions.”

The company said it still complies with its AI principles For responsible development, but that the landscape has changed significantly since its 2018 promise against weapons and surveillance of AI.

Unionization is still relatively rare in the technology sector, which has long resisted attempts to organize its labor force. But there have been growing activities in recent years, included in Amazon and Apple. Google employees founded the Alphabet Workers’ Union in the US by 2021.

One person said that if the union is recognized by Deepmind, he will try to meet with management to request that the company change the course in defense agreements and, if not successful, consider the strike action. They said that colleagues in the United States were also in discussion of unionization.

“What I expect and what they expect for people who are active we will be moving away from military contracts,” they added.

Google has previously faced protests about its military ties. In 2018, several employees abandoned and thousands of employees signed a protest request against the MAV, a contract for the North -Americans who used AI technology to improve Drone’s strikes. Following the widespread discontent of the staff, Google did not renew its contract with the Pentagon and pledged not to work in AI technologies for weapons or surveillance.

One of the major figures in the CWU union, which is not a Deepmind employee said that when the company was first founded, “it attracted many smart people who wanted to work on things for a genuine good” but that Google had begun to “pursue military money.” Google bought the company in 2014.

They said that Deepmind’s staff are often encountered with high wages. “They do not join the union for salary negotiations. They have joined because they have seen the advantages of collectivization to keep Google to consider their declared ethics,” they said.

Deepmind’s engineer who has joined the CWU and is involved in the organization of displeased staff, said that “joining a union is probably the craziest thing that many in the background would have thought they should”, but “the level of discomfort of the people has slowly increased in recent years.”

The company is “sacrificing the morals for greed,” the employee added.