Google DeepMind Workers Vote To Unionize Over Military AI Deals 28
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Employees at Google DeepMind in London have voted to unionize as part of a bid to block the AI lab from providing its technology to the US and Israeli militaries. In a letter addressed to Google's managing director for the UK and Ireland, Debbie Weinstein, the workers asked the company to recognize the Communication Workers Union and Unite the Union as joint representatives for DeepMind employees. "Fundamentally, the push for unionization is about holding Google to its own ethical standards on AI, how they monetize it, what the products do, and who they work with," John Chadfield, national officer for technology at the CWU, tells WIRED. "Through the process of unionization, workers are collectively in a much stronger place to put [demands] to an increasingly deaf management."
[...] The DeepMind employee tells WIRED that if the staff succeeds in unionizing in the UK, they will likely demand that Google pulls out of its long-standing contract with the Israeli military, and seek greater transparency over how its AI products will be used, and some sort of assurance relating to layoffs made possible by automation. If Google does not engage, the letter states, the employees will ask an arbitration committee to compel the company to recognize the unions. Since the turn of the year, both Anthropic and OpenAI have announced large-scale expansions of their operations in London. CWU hopes the unionization effort at DeepMind will spur workers at those labs into similar action. "These conversations are happening," claims Chadfield. "The workers at other frontier labs have seen what Google DeepMind workers have done. They've come to us asking for help as well." The unionization push began in February 2025 after Alphabet removed a pledge from its AI ethics guidelines that had barred uses such as weapons development and surveillance. "A lot of people here bought into the Google DeepMind tagline 'to build AI responsibly to benefit humanity,'" the DeepMind employee told WIRED. "The direction of travel is to further militarization of the AI models we're building here."
[...] The DeepMind employee tells WIRED that if the staff succeeds in unionizing in the UK, they will likely demand that Google pulls out of its long-standing contract with the Israeli military, and seek greater transparency over how its AI products will be used, and some sort of assurance relating to layoffs made possible by automation. If Google does not engage, the letter states, the employees will ask an arbitration committee to compel the company to recognize the unions. Since the turn of the year, both Anthropic and OpenAI have announced large-scale expansions of their operations in London. CWU hopes the unionization effort at DeepMind will spur workers at those labs into similar action. "These conversations are happening," claims Chadfield. "The workers at other frontier labs have seen what Google DeepMind workers have done. They've come to us asking for help as well." The unionization push began in February 2025 after Alphabet removed a pledge from its AI ethics guidelines that had barred uses such as weapons development and surveillance. "A lot of people here bought into the Google DeepMind tagline 'to build AI responsibly to benefit humanity,'" the DeepMind employee told WIRED. "The direction of travel is to further militarization of the AI models we're building here."
Go Google Employees! (Score:5, Interesting)
Go Google employees: best of luck to you!
It won't work: Google is a for profit company, and there are A LOT of profits to be made in the made from the military. They will stop operating in the UK before they give up that much money.
It's almost like there's some sort of complex set up between the military and industrial sides of the equation, designed to drain US taxpayer money from citizens and into the that military industrial complex ...
But still, keep fighting the good fight!
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Hrm.
While it would not have a snowballs chance in hell of working, I would be curious to see someone try some kind of unjust enrichment claim. Contracted work was preformed for compensation, but also preformed under the company's written policies, and one could argue that if they would not have performed the work under the new policies, and the company continues to benefit from the work performed, that the benefits were fraudulently gained. Would not work, but it would be interesting to see the legal ar
Re: Go Google Employees! (Score:5, Informative)
I could understand if they were just pacifists, but where were these guys when Google backed Russia's information warfare campaign in a US court?
First, we're discussing an article about employees at DeepMind in London, which, for reference, is not in the US, and has nothing to do with the case of US copyright violation that you posted the link to.
Second, don't ever use yootoob as a reference. Yootoob is for conspiracy garbage. If it's real, there's a link to an actual site with information.
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If you think it just boils down to nothing more than a copyright claim, then you didn't watch the video. Google actively took Russia's side in that, and the only reason that makes any sense at all is that Russia's information warfare campaign was making Google a lot more money. So what does Google do? Side with what was already well known, even at the time, to be Russia's propaganda mouthpiece. Ad-hominem the source all you want, it doesn't change the fact that this actually happened -- you can look up the
Re:Go Google Employees! (Score:5, Informative)
It won't work: Google is a for profit company, and there are A LOT of profits to be made in the made from the military. They will stop operating in the UK before they give up that much money.
DeepMind is the core of Google's AI research, and it began as a UK company that Google purchased. It's still the case that the bulk of their core researchers are there. Ceasing operations in the UK would not only cost them a lot more than the US DoD will ever pay them, it would also cost them a lot of critical AI expertise.
Re:Go Google Employees! (Score:5, Interesting)
Google doesn't actually have to cease UK operations. That is just some internet-tough-guy bad faith fantasy. Don't entertain it as a real thing.
Google doesn't have to agree to the terms put forth by the unions. Google can recognize the unions, negotiate on common terms, and still reject the demand to "pull out of its long-standing contract with the Israeli military". That puts the ball squarely back in the court of the employees. How many are really willing to quit over that one demand not being met? Being a union does give leverage, but it does not give the ability to dictate terms. And that one is a BIG ask for a tech company.
Unions are for employee protections. (Score:2)
Re:Unions are for employee protections. (Score:5, Informative)
It's not going anywhere. Unions can bargain all they want over this issue, and they may even have a valid societal value in doing so. But unless they can show that it will cost Google more in legal fees than it will in lost revenue or lack of willing employees, the only real option the employees will have is to quit in protest.
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If they could fully put optics and feeds on Iran and detect every small boat launch then smash it with a cheap 3d-printed drone, they'd definitely be doing that. The biggest obstacle is not having enough eyes to watch all
Re:Unions are for employee protections. (Score:5, Interesting)
Or is that no more? This sounds like unionizing to control the employer's actions or morality. I don't see how this is even a thing going anywhere.
These employees are being forced to choose between having their work product support a genocide, and being unemployed. It strikes me that they should be protected from such a choice - especially so since the company they work for once had a loudly-proclaimed motto which said "Don't be evil".
Re:Unions are for employee protections. (Score:4, Informative)
What genocide?
1) Which*
2) This one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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It's a shit situation, but why won't any of the surrounding countries take refugees from Gaza? I'll tell you why. Because every time a country has taken in Palestinian refugees they were thanked with armed revolt. In the Middle-East Palestinians are literally called "rats" by the people in other Arab nations. I found it shocking. But other people I've talked with heard the same thing.
Gaza was captured from Egypt by Israel in 1967. It was handed over to the Palestinians.in 2005. In 2006 Hamas was voted into
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having their work product support a genocide
What genocide?
The one in Gaza. You know - that Palestinian territory which shares a border with Egypt?
Its location is fitting, given the number of people who are in a state of deNile about the genocide Israel is committing there.
Re: Ingrates can go work at a flower shop (Score:1)
Meaning while in China, they keep advancing. (Score:2, Troll)
These folks make me laugh. Go ahead, handcuff Google and other AI companies from working with Western governments. China loves you for it. You can bet your ass they aren't concerned with that noise. They will continue to develop AI and use it with their military and eventually become the dominate super power (assuming they haven't already achieved that). The West will continue it's slide from power while this happens.
It's even funnier because, even the Western government's can straight up just take your shi
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I'm not sure why this got downvoted. This is a fundamental problem. It's the same problem Google faced in China with Search years ago when they actually did pull out and watched Microsoft and everybody else hurry in to fill the void.
Here I can understand to an extent: the workers are UK citizens (presumably). If you were a UK citizen, I'd imagine helping the USA advance its military capability (especially when you might not like the current administration) is a problem for you. But DeepMind is also its
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China has its own problems. They may not be quite as big a threat as people imagine, especially now that their cheap oil has been cut off and their belt & road initiative has started to fall apart. Not to dismiss them entirely, but if they don't invade Taiwan next year then you know they're in trouble.