DeepMind engineers quit rather than build AI for the Pentagon

Several Google DeepMind employees have resigned or are preparing to leave over the company's military AI work, the BBC reports. Research engineer Sofia Liguori resigned this week after three years at the company; AI researcher Andreas Kirsch left earlier this month.

Liguori cited Google's expanding work with the US and Israeli militaries. Kirsch said Google's governance and oversight are not sufficient for military and classified settings, arguing the company has limited visibility into Pentagon deployments and no clear power to block specific uses.

The departures follow Google's classified-use agreement with the Defense Department, which permits “any lawful government purpose” while ruling out domestic mass surveillance and autonomous weapons without appropriate human oversight. Google says it reviews public-sector contracts against its AI principles.