(Bloomberg) — Google has reached an agreement with the US Defense Department to allow its artificial intelligence systems to be used for classified military work, according to a Pentagon official, a deal that came together as researchers at the company protested against it.
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The deal was signed at 4 p.m. on Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter.
A spokesperson for Alphabet Inc.’s Google told Bloomberg News that the company had amended its contract with the Pentagon. While many details of the deal remain unclear, the spokesperson said it included providing the Pentagon with API access, giving the agency the ability to connect directly with the company’s software, but it didn’t entail custom work or model development.
“We believe that providing API access to our commercial models, including on Google infrastructure, with industry-standard practices and terms, represents a responsible approach to supporting national security,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
“We remain committed to the private and public sector consensus that AI should not be used for domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weaponry without appropriate human oversight,” the spokesperson added. Both the Pentagon official and the person famililar with the matter asked not to be named to discuss contractual issues.
The amended contract represents a significant new milestone in Google’s provision of AI to the Pentagon, which has seen several instances of employees protesting the use of the company’s technology for some military uses. The most recent happened on Monday, when hundreds of AI researchers sent a letter to Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai urging him to refuse to make the company’s AI systems available for classified workloads for US defense missions.
“We are Google employees who are deeply concerned about ongoing negotiations between Google and the US Department of Defense,” reads the letter, which was provided to Bloomberg. “As people working on AI, we know that these systems can centralize power and that they do make mistakes.”
Google workers in 2018 also protested the company’s use of its technology for Project Maven, a Pentagon initiative to use AI to analyze drone footage that has become the heart of how America makes war. The protests prompted the company to pledge not to make weapons and other potentially harmful technologies. Google said at the time that its work on Project Maven was intended for “non-offensive purposes,” but in the face of protests and concerns that such technology could lead to lethal outcomes, the company decided not to renew its contract for Maven.
