© Unsplash
Google has just signed a confidential agreement with the US government to use its artificial intelligence in the context of classified defense affairs. More than 600 employees, including vice presidents, have recently signed a letter requesting the suspension of negotiations, expressing their concerns about the ethical consequences.
After the highly criticized Maven project, Google had promised never to collaborate with the US government for military purposes again. In February 2025, the American company changed its policies in this regard.
A letter to stop negotiations
Early April, the media The Information revealed that Google was in talks with the Pentagon regarding the use of its artificial intelligence in classified defense matters. On April 27, over 600 Google employees addressed a letter to Alphabet's CEO, Sundar Pichai, requesting the company to refuse the use of artificial intelligence for classified military affairs. Among the signatories, we find employees, but also directors, vice presidents, or even engineers from Google DeepMind. This letter therefore carries significant weight.
In this letter, an employee under an anonymous cover explains: « In the current state, there is no way to ensure that our tools will not be used to cause terrible damage or infringe on individual freedoms, away from public scrutiny ». This is precisely the issue. Google has asked the government that its AI not be used for mass surveillance in the United States or in the context of lethal attacks, but how can we know if these rules will be applied, especially when it comes to classified defense matters?
Google has shifted direction and signed a confidential agreement with the US government
Google is already working with the US government, but only within the scope of public affairs. In 2017, the American company had collaborated with the Pentagon on the Maven program, which involved using artificial intelligence to automatically analyze images captured by military drones. At the time, over 3,100 employees had signed a petition to stop this military collaboration. Google had promised never to repeat such a collaboration.Â
But the waters have flowed under the bridges. On February 4, 2025, Google updated its general AI principles, removing its commitment to not apply this technology for military purposes. And in this month of April 2026, Google has just signed a confidential agreement with the Pentagon to use its artificial intelligence in the context of classified defense affairs, according to the media The Information. The agreement would allow the Pentagon to use Google's AI for « any legal government purpose ».Â
The US government is seeking to diversify its AI
This agreement takes place in a specific context: the US government is actively seeking to diversify its artificial intelligences. The startup Anthropic, which refuses to use its AI for military or surveillance purposes, is in conflict with the U.S. government. The deputy director of the CIA notably explained that the U.S. intelligence service « cannot allow the whims of a single company [Anthropic]to constrain its use of AI. » The U.S. military then turned to Sam Altman (ChatGPT), who is less concerned about these issues, and is now turning to Google, which seems to have definitively changed its policies in this regard.
👉🏻 Follow real-time tech news: add 01net to your Google sources, and subscribe to our WhatsApp channel.
Source : The Information
- Google Play Store
- 4K Video Downloader Plus
- VLC Media Player
- Adobe Reader
- uTorrent
- WinRAR
- Xender
- Google Chrome
- CCleaner
- Mozilla Firefox
- Avast Free
- ChatGPT
- Microsoft 365
- Opera One
- Avast One
Download
- Google Play Store
- 4K Video Downloader Plus
- VLC Media Player
- Adobe Reader
- uTorrent
- WinRAR
- Xender
- Google Chrome
- CCleaner
- Mozilla Firefox
- Avast Gratuit
- ChatGPT
- Microsoft 365
- Opera One
- Avast One
