More than 600 Google employees signed a letter in April 2026 urging CEO Sundar Pichai to prevent the Pentagon from using Google’s AI models for classified purposes, according to a report by The Washington Post.
The letter’s organizers say many signatories work within Google’s DeepMind AI lab and that the group includes more than 20 principals, directors, and vice presidents — indicating the push comes from senior levels of the company, not just rank-and-file staff.
The letter states: “The only way to guarantee that Google does not become associated with such harms is to reject any classified workloads. Otherwise, such uses may occur without our knowledge or the power to stop them.” The employees’ concern centers on the risk that Google’s AI could be applied to military uses that neither the company nor its workers would be aware of or able to prevent.
The letter comes amid broader tension between the tech industry and the US military over AI use. Anthropic is currently in a legal battle with the Pentagon after refusing to loosen guardrails around how the US military can use its AI models. Anthropic was subsequently designated a “supply chain risk” by the Pentagon. Employees at Google are among those in the tech industry who have expressed support for Anthropic’s position.
The development suggests growing internal pressure at Google over the boundaries of its AI partnerships with government and defense agencies. Whether Pichai or Google leadership will respond publicly to the letter’s demands has not been reported.
Source: The Verge