Big Tech giant Google has started accepting federal funding for its artificial intelligence, despite its employees previously refusing to cooperate with the Defense Department.
Earlier this week, Google Cloud announced a $200 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense to assist its Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO). The contract’s announcement was shocking, considering that thousands of Google employees raised furor over a DOD AI contract a few years ago, claiming it would force them to support military action against their will.
What has changed since 2018? One new factor is Google's frantic race with its AI competitors, including Chinese DeepSeek. Additionally, Google Gemini’s bias and anti-free speech algorithm present potential concerns as the DOD utilizes Google-designed AI.
In its press release, Google Cloud promised the DOD access to “frontier AI innovations and secure, extensive cloud infrastructure” and “advanced AI solutions [that] will enable the DoD to effectively address defense challenges and scale the adoption of agentic AI across enterprise systems.” But red flags remain, MRC VP for Free Speech Dan Schneider warned.
“While it seems a promising sign that Google is willing to work with the Pentagon, there is more here than meets the eye,” Schneider said. “After Chinese DeepSeek overtook Google earlier this year, the tech giant has been desperately trying to catch up with all of its AI competitors. Google has gotten fat, happy and lazy and has fallen far behind.”
MRC has repeatedly exposed AI chatbot Gemini’s bias and anti-free speech design. For example, in April 2024, Gemini provided an argument for censoring so-called climate “misinformation,” a word leftists use to justify censorship of opinions with which they disagree.
Gemini also would not admit there is any evidence to undermine the “mainstream” narrative on “climate change.” Then, in July, right before Independence Day 2025, Gemini displayed leftist bias by claiming the July 4th celebrations and the Pledge of Allegiance can be offensive, framing the Founders as racist hypocrites. If Gemini is so problematic, what issues might be present in the AI tools provided to the DOD?
The new Google contract is particularly noteworthy in light of the internal dissent in 2018 when the tech giant accepted a contract for drone surveillance AI from the Pentagon.
“We believe that Google should not be in the business of war,” asserted the open letter signed by 3000 Google employees. “Building this technology to assist the US government in military surveillance—and potentially lethal outcomes—is not acceptable.”
Some employees resigned while others staged a walkout. Ultimately, Google did not renew the contract due to the backlash. Nonetheless, the AI race has heated up since 2018, and Google appears willing once more to cash in on Pentagon funding.
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