Recently, reports have surfaced that Google has been closely collaborating with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) following the outbreak of conflict with Hamas, providing artificial intelligence (AI) services. This information comes from internal documents obtained by The Washington Post, revealing that employees in Google's cloud division directly responded to requests from the Israeli military for AI tools in the weeks following the conflict.
It is understood that after Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7, employees from Google's cloud division established contact with the IDF and emphasized the need to quickly meet the military's demands in internal discussions. The document mentions that if Google did not promptly respond to Israel's requests, the military might turn to its competitor Amazon for cloud computing services.
Additionally, the documents indicate that several months after the conflict began, Google employees continued to seek to provide more AI tools to the Israeli military. Meanwhile, Google has publicly insisted that there is no direct cooperation with the Israeli military, stating that its contracts with Israel are primarily for services to civilian government departments. Anna Kowalchik, Google's external communications manager for cloud, stated in April 2024: "Our collaboration with Israel does not involve military or intelligence-related work."
However, the attitude within Google regarding these collaborations is not uniform. On one hand, employees have expressed dissatisfaction with the company's involvement with the Israeli military, leading to protests in offices in New York and California, resulting in the dismissal of 28 participants, some of whom were arrested during the protests. This action has sparked widespread public attention and controversy.
Key Points:
🌍 Google has been reported to directly collaborate with the Israeli military, providing AI technology services.
⚠️ Internal documents show that employees warned that if responses were not swift, the military might turn to Amazon.
🚫 Google insists that its contracts with Israel are limited to civilian government departments, denying military cooperation.
