Google reportedly signs classified AI deal with US Pentagon | Google
It is reported that Google signed an agreement with the US Pentagon to use artificial intelligence models in secret studies. The tech company joins a growing list of Silicon Valley firms that have signed deals with the US military.
The agreement allows the Pentagon to use Google’s AI for “any lawful government purpose.” Information He added this by placing it alongside OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI, which have agreements to supply AI models for secret use. Similar deals at both Google and other AI firms have sparked serious disagreements with the Pentagon and major employees pushing back.
Covert networks are used to carry out a wide range of sensitive work, including mission planning and weapons targeting. The Pentagon has signed deals worth up to $200 million each in 2025 with major AI labs including Anthropic, OpenAI and Google. The government agency had been pressuring leading AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic to make their tools available on private networks without the standard restrictions they impose on users.
Google’s agreement requires the company to help adjust AI security settings and filters at the government’s request, according to the information report.
The agreement states: “The Parties acknowledge that the Artificial Intelligence System is not designed for, and should not be used for, domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weapons (including target selection) without appropriate human oversight and control.”
But the agreement also does not give Google the right to control or veto the government’s legal operational decision-making, the report said.
The Pentagon declined to comment on the matter.
Google said it supports government agencies on both classified and non-secret projects. The company remains committed to the consensus that AI should not be used for domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weapons without appropriate human oversight, a spokesperson for the company said.
“We believe that providing API access to our commercial models, including Google infrastructure, with industry-standard practices and terms, represents a responsible approach to supporting national security,” a Google spokesperson told Reuters.
The Pentagon has said it is not interested in using AI to conduct mass surveillance on Americans or develop lethal weapons that work without human intervention, but wants “any lawful use” of AI to be allowed. Anthropic faced problems with the Pentagon earlier in the year after the startup refused to raise guardrails against using its artificial intelligence for autonomous weapons or domestic surveillance and the department identified the Claude maker as a supply chain risk.
A letter from Google employees says Google’s deal with the Pentagon came despite employees’ fears that their work could be used in “inhumane or extremely harmful ways.”
On Monday, more than 600 Google employees signed an open letter to CEO Sundar Pichai expressing concerns about negotiations between Google and the Pentagon.
“We feel that our proximity to this technology creates a responsibility to highlight and prevent its most unethical and dangerous uses,” they wrote. “Therefore, we ask you to refuse to make our AI systems available for confidential workloads.”
Last year, Google owner Alphabet lifted a ban on the use of artificial intelligence for weapons and surveillance tools. The company removed language in its code of ethics that promised the company would not pursue “technologies that cause or are likely to cause public harm.” Demis Hassabis, the company’s AI lead, said: blog post He said that artificial intelligence has become important to protect “national security”.
Some Google employees expressed concerns about the language change on the company’s internal message board at the time. Someone asked: “Are we the bad ones?” accordingly Business Content.
The use of artificial intelligence and technology in warfare has long been a concern for Google employees, whose previous activism on this issue has seen some success. In 2018, thousands of Google employees signed a letter protesting their company’s involvement in a contract with the Pentagon that used AI tools to analyze drone surveillance images. Google opted not to renew the Project Maven contract that year after internal backlash, and controversial surveillance analytics company Palantir stepped in. take over.
