Google made a controversial artificial intelligence collaboration with the Israeli army

It was claimed that Google was working on artificial intelligence tools with the Israeli army (IDF) immediately after Israel’s ground operation against the Gaza Strip. According to company documents obtained by the Washington Post, Google’s cloud computing unit worked hard to quickly respond to the Israeli army’s requests. During this period, Google was in competition with other major competitors such as Amazon.

The documents that are the source of the news show that after the attack carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023, Google cooperated directly with the Israeli army, although it stated to the public and its employees that it only worked with civilian government units. However, it is claimed that Google hid this collaboration from the public and adopted a different discourse.

According to The Washington Post, weeks after the start of the war, an employee from Google’s cloud computing unit brought up the Israeli army’s requests for access to Google artificial intelligence technologies within the company. Company documents state that if Google does not respond quickly to these demands, Israel may turn to Amazon. In a document dated November 2023, it was recorded that an employee thanked a colleague for responding to the Israeli army’s requests.

In addition, it was revealed that some employees demanded more artificial intelligence tools for the Israeli army. In this process, it seems that the competition between Google and Amazon has increased, especially within the scope of “Project Nimbus”, Israel’s $1.2 billion cloud computing agreement.

Google has taken harsh action against employees who oppose work carried out as part of Project Nimbus. 28 employees who staged a sit-in protest in offices in New York and California were fired. Some protesters were detained during these actions.

Google refused to cooperate with the Israeli army

On the other hand, in its statements in response to these criticisms, Google argued that the Nimbus Project only covers workloads carried out with civilian ministries of the Israeli government and that there is no sensitive information about military or intelligence in the project. “This work does not cover classified or sensitive military workloads related to weapons or intelligence,” Google Cloud’s external communications manager Anna Kowalczyk said in a statement to The Verge in April 2024.

The resulting documents reveal the contradictions between Google’s public statements and practices. The fact that the company continued with a controversial project despite the protests of its employees caused it to receive serious criticism on ethics and transparency issues. At the same time, tech giants’ work in artificial intelligence and cloud computing raises new questions about what role they play in such conflicts.

What path Google will follow in this process and the steps it will take against these allegations will continue to be watched carefully in the technology world and global politics.