Round 300 London-based members of Google’s AI-focused DeepMind workforce are looking for to unionize with the Communication Employees Union, based on a Monetary Instances report that cites three individuals concerned with the unionization effort.
These DeepMind staff are reportedly sad about Google’s determination to take away a pledge to not use AI for weapons or surveillance from its web site. They’re additionally involved concerning the firm’s work with the Israeli navy, together with a $1.2 billion cloud computing contract that has prompted protests elsewhere at Google.
One supply advised the FT that workforce members really feel “duped,” and correspondence reportedly reveals that no less than 5 DeepMind workers members have give up citing these points. DeepMind has round 2,000 whole workers members in the UK.
A Google spokesperson advised the FT that the corporate encourages “constructive and open dialogue with all of our staff.”
A small group of round 200 staff of Google and its guardian firm Alphabet beforehand introduced that they have been unionizing, although as a union representing only a tiny slice of the whole Google workforce, it lacked the power to collectively cut price.