Google Aiding Israeli Occupation Military with AI Technology, Washington Post Reports
The Washington Post has revealed that Google has been working to provide the Israeli occupation military with the latest artificial intelligence (AI) technologies since the early weeks of the 2021 war on Gaza.
According to the report, Google’s cooperation with the Israeli Ministry of Defense began in 2021, when the Israeli government requested to expand its use of Google’s “Vertex” AI service for military applications. The Post notes that a Google employee even warned that the Israeli military would turn to Amazon’s services if it could not obtain the desired AI capabilities from Google.
The newspaper states that the Israeli occupation military sought access to Google’s “Gemini” AI technology to develop its own AI assistant for processing documents and audio. Documents show the military continued utilizing Google’s latest AI tools even as the 2021 airstrikes reduced large parts of Gaza to rubble.
The Post reports that over 100 Google employees urged the company to reconsider its work with the Israeli military, but Google largely ignored their concerns. While Google claims to distance itself from the Israeli government’s national security operations, the company did fire over 50 employees last year who protested the “Nimbus” cloud computing contract, which they feared would enable military and intelligence uses harmful to Palestinians.
Google maintains the Nimbus contract, valued in the billions, does not involve “highly sensitive, secret, or military functions related to weapons or intelligence.” However, Israeli officials have stated the deal would include collaboration with the military.
The Washington Post was unable to determine precisely how the Israeli occupation military employs Google’s AI capabilities. But the report cites previous statements from an Israeli cybersecurity official confirming the Nimbus contract directly supports combat applications, stating “Amazing things happen during combat, and these things play a major role in victory.”
The article notes the Israeli occupation military has been expanding its use of AI for years to expedite intelligence processing and target selection, including deploying an internally-developed AI tool called “Hepsora” during the 2021 Gaza war to identify bombing targets. While some Israeli leaders have raised concerns about Hepsora’s accuracy, the military’s reliance on advanced AI technologies like those from Google appears to be growing.
Source: The Washington Post