BBS: TELESC.NET.BR
Assunto: Google proud to serve Pentagon
De: Mike Powell
Data: Fri, 1 May 2026 09:31:30 -0500
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Google says it is proud to serve the Pentagon new DoD contract expansion
says Gemini will only be used for any lawful purpose, but what happened to
'Dont Be Evil'?
Date:
Thu, 30 Apr 2026 22:10:00 +0000
Description:
Google's contract with the Pentagon allows the DoD to use Gemini for 'any
lawful purpose', and that is a big ethical concern.
FULL STORY
Google employees are not happy with the new contract -- Google
recently expanded its contract with the US Department of Defense (DoD) to
provide Gemini for use in classified operations, or for any lawful purpose,
and has also pulled out of a $100 million Pentagon challenge to build
autonomous voice-controlled drone swarms.
At the same time, the company is facing internal dissatisfaction with its
decision to provide the Pentagon with Gemini for classified projects, but the
company has responded by telling staff it is proud of the Pentagon AI
contract. So how have Googles ethics and policies evolved over time? And are
they changing to allow the company to edge into a highly lucrative - although
ethically dubious - slice of government pie?
Googles pivot away from its once widely recognized motto
of Dont Be Evil may be coming true in the eyes of some Google employees, but
it's not the first time the company has changed its policy. The company's AI
principles once stated that the company would not deploy its AI tools where
they were likely to cause harm, and would not design or deploy AI tools for
surveillance or weapons.
Pulling out of the Pentagon competition to create technology capable of
turning spoken instructions into commands for an autonomous drone swarm was
reported by Google to be a matter of a lack of resources, however the actual
cause is reported to be an internal ethics review, Bloomberg reports.
This suggests, at least, that the internal ethics board is still functioning
and not entirely toothless.
On the other hand, with the company expanding its Gemini availability into
classified networks, the Pentagon is free to use Gemini for any lawful
purpose. This clause is more bark than bite.
Back before the turn of the century, it was illegal for communications
providers to install backdoors for law enforcement purposes - but CALEA and
the Patriot Act changed all that. Federal law enforcement was also previously
prevented from legally seizing data stored on servers in foreign countries -
but the CLOUD Act changed that too.
Things are only illegal until theyre legal, and vice versa, effectively
giving the Pentagon a future-proof loophole should their intended use case
suddenly be legalized.
Therefore, the any lawful purpose clause doesnt offer any significant
protection against using AI for autonomous weapons systems or mass domestic
surveillance purposes, as Anthropic protested , and is weakened further by
the inclusion of a clause within the Google-DoD contract that states the
company does not have any right to veto lawful government operational
decision-making. Something OpenAI also encountered in its Pentagon deal .
This gives the Pentagon near-free rein over the direction it chooses to take
with Gemini in its classified projects. Mass surveillance has been happening
for decades , but AIs purpose within it all is just to make it smarter, more
targeted, and more efficient.
A slice of Pentagon pie -- The appeal of working
as a government and military contractor is a simple one: there is a lot of
money involved. Before the ink had fully fried on Anthropic's severance from
government use, OpenAI had a shiny expanded contract to fill exactly the role
Anthropic was looking to avoid .
In a similar way, Microsoft and Amazon have already won numerous contracts
involving cloud, AI, and cybersecurity tools, and it appears Google is trying
to play catch up.
Googles employees have been a challenge when it comes to the ethics of
working with the government. In 2018, protests by Google employees resulted
in the company dropping out of Project MAVEN over the use of Google
technology in analyzing drone strike footage. These protests also resulted in
Googles now-missing do no harm AI principles.
Google also faced similar dissent when employees opposed the company's
potential involvement in providing technology to Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
As is tradition, Googles employees are once again forming digital picket
lines, with over 600 signing a letter to CEO Sundar Pichai asking him to
reject any use of Googles AI technology for military purposes.
In response, Kent Walker, Googles president of global affairs, wrote in an
internal memo on Tuesday seen by The Information , We have proudly worked
with defense departments since Googles earliest days, and we continue to
believe that its important to support national security in a thoughtful and
responsible way.
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/pro/google-says-it-is-proud-to-serve-the-pentagon-ne
w-dod-contract-expansion-says-gemini-will-only-be-used-for-any-lawful-purpose-
but-what-happened-to-dont-be-evil
$$
--- MultiMail/DOS
* Origin: Capitol City Hub (1:2320/105)
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