Google and Amazon employees in San Francisco protested AI contracts their employers had with the Israeli government.
Richard Nieva
Hundreds of Google and Amazon employees took to the streets on Thursday to speak out across the country against the two tech giants’ cloud deal with the Israeli government, fearing the military would use the technology to spy on Palestinians. protested in.
Demonstrations spread to four US cities (San Francisco, New York, Seattle, and Durham, North Carolina) where workers protested Project Nimbus. This is his $1.2 billion deal signed by both Google and Amazon to provide Israel with artificial intelligence services and other computing tools. This technology could potentially be used for face detection and “sentiment analysis”. It’s a form of machine learning that claims that providers can identify someone’s emotions by studying their faces and speech. report by interception.
In San Francisco, protesters gathered at one of Google’s offices overlooking the bay and marched five blocks to Amazon’s offices. Protesters yelled, “Stop Amazon, put people before profit!” And “No justice, no peace! Tech workers in the streets!” I was putting up a sign. (Organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch describe Israel’s actions against Palestine as apartheid.)
Workers said they fear Google and Amazon technology will be used to spy on Palestinians.
Richard Nieva
Former Google employee Ariel Koren said at the rally, “We call on every Google employee listening to us to choose action over indifference. turned to Google’s office in the background and pointed to the window: “That’s why Google employees are yelling ‘Drop Nimbus’ today.”
Organizers said 150 people attended the San Francisco rally.
Google spokesperson Atle Erlingsson said the protesters were “misrepresenting the contract.” “As we have said many times, this contract is for workloads run on our commercial platform by Israeli government ministries such as finance, healthcare, transportation and education,” he said in a statement. increase. “Our work is not directed to highly sensitive or classified military operations related to weapons or intelligence services.”
However, according to a July report by The Intercept, Google’s technology could provide governments and their military with face detection, object tracking, and “sentiment analysis that claims to assess the emotional content of photos, speech, and text.” provide functionality.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.
The nationwide protests sparked Koren, who worked at Google for seven years, I left the company After she described the deal as retaliation for publicly criticizing it. After the act, Coren, who worked as a marketer for educational products in Latin America, said he was suddenly told to move to Brazil or lose his job. , Koren, who is Jewish, said Google “systematically silences the voices of Palestinians, Jews, Arabs and Muslims who fear that Google is complicit in Palestinian human rights abuses.” Stated.
Coren filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board last November. The board has dismissed the accusations, but Coren, she said, did not allow the agency to allow Google to speak to her manager. according to New York Times. Google’s Erlingsson said the move decision was made before Nimbus raised any concerns.
Speaking at the conference, Google Cloud Software Engineer Josh Marxen said: forbes He worries that seemingly harmless products Google employees are working on could be used for malicious purposes.
“The cloud products we are providing to the Israeli military are not stand-alone. They work together as a suite,” he said. “We know that AI, machine learning, and big data management technologies are most helpful when integrated into surveillance systems.”
Employees at both Google and Amazon have been vocal about working conditions. Google made international headlines with tens of thousands of employees in 2018 left their office Protest the handling of allegations of sexual misconduct directed against senior management, including Android creator Andy Rubin. made history in april As the first unionized employee unit in the company.Last week, a group of Amazon workers sent a letter It urged members of Congress to call a hearing on warehouse safety and subpoena CEO Andy Jassy to testify.
‘This is a crisis of conscience,’ said Coren forbes“This is a truly historic campaign due to the fact that Google and Amazon employees are coming together.”
This story has been updated with comments from Google.
