Google and Amazon want more defense contracts, despite worker protests
Google and Amazon want more defense contracts, despite worker protests
Similar scenes unfolded outside Google and Amazon offices in New York and Seattle, and at a Google office in Durham, North Carolina. Google and Amazon employees were joined at the rallies by technicians from other companies and Palestinian rights organizations. They all came together to protest Project Nimbus, Google and Amazon's cloud computing contract with the Israeli government.
Google documents published by The Intercept show that the contract includes artificial intelligence technology such as face detection, video analysis and sentiment analysis. Opponents of the deal fear the Israeli military could use the technology to expand surveillance of Palestinians living in the occupied territories and violate human rights.
In an email, Google Cloud spokesperson Atle Erlingsson wrote that Google Cloud proudly supports many governments, including Israel. He accused protesters of misrepresenting Project Nimbus, saying "our work is not directed towards highly sensitive or classified military workloads", but acknowledged that the contract will provide the IDF with access to Google technology. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The protests are retreading familiar territory for Google, after thousands of workers signed a letter in 2018 condemning a Pentagon drone surveillance contract, Project Maven. Dozens of employees quit over the deal, which also prompted an outcry from academics, including former Stanford adviser and Google co-founder Larry Page. The company eventually said it would not seek to renew the contract and released a set of AI principles intended to serve as ethical benchmarks.
Some Google employees who oppose Project Nimbus say it violates some of those promises, including a commitment not to prosecute technologies that "collect or use information for surveillance purposes in violation of standards." internationally accepted rules" or violate "widely accepted principles of international law and human rights". Rights." Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International say Israel routinely violates the human rights of Palestinians and calls Israel an apartheid state.
Aniran Chandravongsri joined Google's cloud division as a Seattle-based software engineer at the height of the Maven protests in May 2018. Having previously worked at General Electric, a major Pentagon contractor, he said that the outcry "was one reason I felt a little more comfortable joining Google." Over the years, he signed petitions protesting the company's work with law enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, but decided to take a leadership role in the fight against Project Nimbus. .
Chandravongsri's parents were born in Laos, where he still has extended family. He saw firsthand how the CIA's bombing campaigns of the 1960s and 1970s left a deadly legacy of unexploded ordnance that still threatens lives today, a problem seen in many war zones, including Gaza. He says reading about the AI capabilities included in Project Nimbus "really scared me".
Chandravongsri is far from the only employee on Google's vast international team whose background offers a different perspective on the Pentagon and its military allies than many U.S. employees and executives....
Similar scenes unfolded outside Google and Amazon offices in New York and Seattle, and at a Google office in Durham, North Carolina. Google and Amazon employees were joined at the rallies by technicians from other companies and Palestinian rights organizations. They all came together to protest Project Nimbus, Google and Amazon's cloud computing contract with the Israeli government.
Google documents published by The Intercept show that the contract includes artificial intelligence technology such as face detection, video analysis and sentiment analysis. Opponents of the deal fear the Israeli military could use the technology to expand surveillance of Palestinians living in the occupied territories and violate human rights.
In an email, Google Cloud spokesperson Atle Erlingsson wrote that Google Cloud proudly supports many governments, including Israel. He accused protesters of misrepresenting Project Nimbus, saying "our work is not directed towards highly sensitive or classified military workloads", but acknowledged that the contract will provide the IDF with access to Google technology. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The protests are retreading familiar territory for Google, after thousands of workers signed a letter in 2018 condemning a Pentagon drone surveillance contract, Project Maven. Dozens of employees quit over the deal, which also prompted an outcry from academics, including former Stanford adviser and Google co-founder Larry Page. The company eventually said it would not seek to renew the contract and released a set of AI principles intended to serve as ethical benchmarks.
Some Google employees who oppose Project Nimbus say it violates some of those promises, including a commitment not to prosecute technologies that "collect or use information for surveillance purposes in violation of standards." internationally accepted rules" or violate "widely accepted principles of international law and human rights". Rights." Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International say Israel routinely violates the human rights of Palestinians and calls Israel an apartheid state.
Aniran Chandravongsri joined Google's cloud division as a Seattle-based software engineer at the height of the Maven protests in May 2018. Having previously worked at General Electric, a major Pentagon contractor, he said that the outcry "was one reason I felt a little more comfortable joining Google." Over the years, he signed petitions protesting the company's work with law enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, but decided to take a leadership role in the fight against Project Nimbus. .
Chandravongsri's parents were born in Laos, where he still has extended family. He saw firsthand how the CIA's bombing campaigns of the 1960s and 1970s left a deadly legacy of unexploded ordnance that still threatens lives today, a problem seen in many war zones, including Gaza. He says reading about the AI capabilities included in Project Nimbus "really scared me".
Chandravongsri is far from the only employee on Google's vast international team whose background offers a different perspective on the Pentagon and its military allies than many U.S. employees and executives....
