Google Workers in California and New York are planning sit-in protests. Relationship between the company and Israel On Tuesday, organizers of “No Tech for Apartheid” told Gizmodo. Protesters are demanding that the company scrap Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract between Google and Amazon. cloud computing services to the Israeli government and military.
“The outcome we want is for Google to drop Project Nimbus and actually stop all support for the Israeli military,” said Google software engineer and organizer of No Tech for Apartheid. Chayne Anderson, who is also an author, said in a phone interview with Gizmodo. “How can we sit by and watch the news coming out of Gaza and continue with business as usual?”
No Tech for Apartheid expects more than 50 employees to participate in sit-ins between Google’s Sunnyvale and New York City offices on Tuesday. In Sunnyvale, workers are planning a sit-in inside Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office.
Anderson told Gizmodo that opposition to Google’s relationship with the Israeli military is growing within the company. The Israeli Ministry of Finance has announced that in 2021 Google and Amazon’s Project Nimbus will become part of the country’sdefense facilities” with a comprehensive cloud solution. Since then, little information about the deal has been revealed. No Tech for Apartheid is calling for more transparency about how the Israeli military uses Google services. Google DeepMind researchers said: time Last week, it was announced that cloud providers often have limited insight into their government clients’ servers.
Part of Tuesday’s No Technology for Apartheid protest is about the return of Eddie Hatfield. Google interrupted an executive presentation last month toApartheid has no technology!” at the Israeli Technology Conference in New York. A Google spokesperson said: The Verge Mr. Hatfield was fired, not because of any specific employee abuse, but because he disrupted a company-sponsored event, the company said. But Anderson said No Tech for Apartheid views Hatfield’s firing as an act of retaliation for speaking out about the Nimbus project.
“Google claims that Eddy was fired for disrupting another employee’s presentation, but this is clearly a more serious ethical violation than any war profiteering behavior committed by Google executives,” Anderson said. ” he said.
Google did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment.
There is no evidence to suggest that Google or Amazon technology was used to kill civilians. However, in recent reports, +972 Magazine Suggests that Israel uses an advanced AI system called “lavender” labels Gaza residents as targets on the kill list. Israel is known to use another AI system in its wars called “.gospel,” to select targets for bombing in Gaza. The cloud provider powering these AI systems is currently unknown, but it appears that they require fairly sophisticated computing infrastructure.
“Apartheid Doesn’t Need Technology” refers to growing concerns in the technology industry about how AI might be used in war. As Time previously reported, two workers quit over concerns about Google’s involvement with the Israeli government. Technology has always played a role in wars, but some Google employees would prefer that technology not play a role in wars.
