Google’s UK-based DeepMind workers have launched a bid to form what would be the world’s first union at a frontier AI lab. The move follows a controversial deal Google inked with the Pentagon, sparking a wave of internal backlash over the company’s military contracts.
Last week, Google agreed to let the U.S. Department of Defense use its Gemini AI models inside classified military networks for “any lawful purpose,” a deal critics say could open the door to autonomous weapons and mass surveillance of American citizens with few enforceable limits. Google is not the only leading AI lab to sign such a deal—OpenAI, xAI, Nvidia, Microsoft, and Amazon have all agreed to similar contracts. Only Anthropic has refused, resulting in the Pentagon ordering the military and all defense contractors to stop using its products and labeling it a “supply chain risk,” a designation Anthropic is challenging in court.
