Google employees have ethical concerns
SAN FRANCISCO — Hundreds of Google employees have signed a petition protesting a secret project to develop a search engine for China, the latest example of tech workers rebelling against corporate policies that push moral boundaries.
The letter, first reported by The New York Times, says Google’s decision to work with China raises “urgent moral and ethical issues,” and that employees “do not have the information required to make ethically-informed decisions” about their work, projects and employment.
The employees, who represent a fraction of parent company Alphabet’s workforce of 89,000, also were upset by the secrecy of the project and in the petition demanded more transparency about the company’s myriad ventures, which range from selfdriving cars to advanced artificial intelligence.
Google was scheduled to have a regular company-wide meeting between senior leadership and global employees late Thursday, during which in-person and remote staffers can ask any question they want. CEO Sundar Pichai as well as co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have been known to lead the meetings.
Google declined to comment on the petition.
The new protest comes on the heels of a similar letter signed by thousands of Google staffers concerned about the use of Google’s artificial intelligence tech- nology in helping the military carry out drone strikes. In June, Google opted not to renew a contract that called for assisting the military with such drone-related tech, according to reports.
Also in June, hundreds of Microsoft employees signed a letter requesting that the software company cancel its contracts with ICE, the immigration enforcement agency, arguing that the contract was ethically troublesome. Under the Trump Administration, ICE has enforced a “zero tolerance” immigration policy.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella posted a response to the letter, noting that Microsoft’s contract with ICE was limited to helping the agency with bureaucratic products such as mail and calendar programs.