Google staff seek unionisation

In May, around 300 employees at the London office of Google’s DeepMind research laboratory sought to unionise in response to concerns that their artificial intelligence work is being used in military applications, including by the Israeli government. The AI unit has around 2,000 staff in the UK.

The workers have applied to join the Communication Workers Union (CWU), citing disquiet over Google’s involvement in Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud computing contract with Israel that reportedly includes AI technologies.

An engineer involved in the organising effort stated: “This is basically cutting-edge AI that we’re providing to an ongoing conflict. People don’t want their work used like this.”

The union drive follows Google’s decision in February to withdraw its 2018 pledge not to develop AI technologies that could cause harm, including weapons and surveillance tools.

A senior CWU official commented: “They’ve joined because they’ve seen the benefits of collectivising to hold Google to account for their stated ethics.”

Nearly 200 DeepMind employees signed a letter urging the company to terminate its military contracts, arguing that such deals violate Google’s AI principles.