Workers at Google DeepMind, the tech giant's artificial intelligence research laboratory in the United Kingdom, have voted to unionize, citing concerns over a recently announced deal between Google and the US military, according to reporting by the Guardian.
In a letter addressed to management, shared exclusively with the Guardian ahead of its planned delivery on Tuesday, DeepMind employees formally requested recognition of their union. The move comes days after Google announced a partnership with the Pentagon.
At least one worker pointed to the US Department of Defense's involvement in the Iran war and its reported dispute with AI company Anthropic as evidence that the department is, in their words, "not a responsible partner," according to the Guardian's account of the letter.
Military AI partnerships under scrutiny
The unionization effort reflects growing unease within the technology sector over the expanding role of artificial intelligence in military applications. Google's deal with the US military, announced last week, appears to have accelerated organizing efforts among UK-based DeepMind staff.
The concerns raised by workers center on questions about how AI technology developed at DeepMind could ultimately be used, and whether the company's partnerships align with what employees consider ethical standards for AI development.
This is not the first time Google employees have mobilized over military contracts. In 2018, thousands of Google workers signed a petition opposing the company's involvement in Project Maven, a Pentagon program that used AI to analyze drone footage. That pressure campaign ultimately led Google to decline to renew that contract.
Broader labor movement in tech
The DeepMind vote is part of a broader trend of labor organizing within the technology industry, particularly among workers involved in AI research and development. Employees at several major tech firms have sought greater input into how their work is applied, especially in defense and surveillance contexts.
Google has not publicly responded to the unionization request, according to the Guardian's reporting. It remains unclear whether the company will formally recognize the new union or what the next steps in the process will be under UK labor law.
DeepMind, which Google acquired in 2014, employs hundreds of researchers and engineers in London and is considered one of the world's leading AI research organizations. Its work has included breakthroughs in protein structure prediction and reinforcement learning.
