- That's how many Google employees - including more than 20 principals, directors, and vice presidents - signed a letter to CEO Sundar Pichai demanding the company refuse classified military use of its AI models.
The letter, reported by The Washington Post, calls on Pichai to block the Pentagon from using Google AI for classified purposes. Organizers say a significant number of signers work inside Google DeepMind, the company's primary AI research division, making this an unusually senior revolt rather than a grassroots petition from junior engineers.
Google's history with military contracts is contentious. In 2018, thousands of employees objected to Project Maven, a Defense Department contract to analyze drone footage using AI. Google let that contract expire and adopted AI ethics principles that included limits on weapons applications - though those principles left room for national security work.
This letter is narrower, specifically targeting classified use rather than all government contracts. But the underlying tension is the same: Google's AI models are now capable enough that military applications extend well beyond image recognition. Large language models (AI systems that can read, summarize, and reason through text) can be used for intelligence analysis, targeting decisions, and a range of sensitive tasks that some employees argue fall outside what they built these systems to do.
Whether the letter changes policy is unclear. Google has not publicly responded to the specific demands. The company signed a Department of Defense cloud and AI services contract last year, and Pichai has shown more openness to government work than the 2018 employee response suggested he would. At a company with more than 180,000 employees, 600 signatures is visible - but not necessarily decisive.