During a keynote speech in New York on Monday from the managing director of Google’s Israel business, an employee in the company’s cloud division protested publicly, proclaiming “I refuse to build technology that powers genocide.”
Google’s role as a provider of technology to militaries in the U.S. and abroad has been a source of workforce consternation since at least 2018, when employees protested a Defense Department contract called Project Maven. Then came controversy surrounding Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion artificial intelligence and computing services agreement among Google, Amazon Web Services and the Israeli government and military that began in 2021.
That outrage has spread to a host of other issues, often leaving CEO Sundar Pichai on the defensive when confronted by employees at company events.
But they were fine sucking the Google teat when it was doing everything else?
Gotta draw the line somewhere. And this is a pretty good place.
Not every Google product is cartoon-villain tier evil, but project Nimbus definitely is.
Most people don’t dare speak out about it when their company is actively complicit in Genocide. This employee will no longer be complicit in Genocide.