this inspiring labor resistance coming from Google's own ranks is giving the Pentagon pause in its ongoing negotiations with Google leadership. worker power works! if you or someone you know works at Google, consider getting involved: www.notechforapartheid.com @notechforapartheid.bsky.social
DeepMind and Research employees, including Chief Scientist Jeff Dean (responding to grassroots pressure from employees), recently signed an amicus brief in support of Anthropic's case against their designation of a supply-chain risk by the Pentagon.
the www.googlers-against-ice.com petition recently cleared 1,500 Google worker signatories in under two months. the signatories are demanding transparency about Google's contracts with ICE and essential worker protections. catch a handful of us at SF #nokings tomorrow.
I started organizing with my co-workers in @notechforapartheid.bsky.social and am still a volunteer external member to this day. here's what's been going on recently: 🧵
once I fully reckoned with how my labor was being used, there was no turning back. it became impossible to spend any more time caring about a promotion or my next research paper when my bosses were leasing Gemini to criminal militaries.
at DeepMind, my research was upstream of Gemini's fact-finding capabilities -- the same capabilities being used to supercharge target acquisition for Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, the Pentagon's bombings in Iran, Venezuela, and the Caribbean, and ICE's illegal raids throughout the U.S.
this month, I was on the cover of TIME alongside 8 other professionals who are using their knowledge and positions to resist the disastrous impacts of "AI" tech. I was glad to represent the Google chapter of @notechforapartheid.bsky.social as one of the few x-workers still involved in the campaign.
Tonight at 6:30PM (virtual) w/ @notechforapartheid.bsky.social and @claudiajonesschool.bsky.social
Surveillance has long been used to monitor, criminalize, and control our communities. Join us for a teach-in on how these systems operate and how we can protect ourselves.
Join: bit.ly/BLOCKISHOTDC
💥BREAKING💥St. Louis service workers won’t let the bosses drown out our voices 🗣️
#MOworkers, @sbworkersunited.org members, and community allies are gathering for the Food Service Workers’ Town Hall because we’re serious about demanding a real voice on the job — and across the whole industry!
Remember, ICE wouldn't be able to terrorize civilians without the cooperation of Big Tech. A new @wired.com investigation breaks down just how much it relies on computing power from companies like Amazon.
Yesterday, our #GooglersAgainstICE petition opposing Google’s partnerships with DHS/ICE/CBP hit 1,400 signatures.
This powerful & growing response from Google workers represents widespread anger with leadership’s collusion with ICE’s horrific detention-deportation machine.
We represent groups of workers from Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Our organizations typically focus on a range of issues, from better workplace protections to the pursuit of environmental justice and the demilitarization of our technology.
This is our first statement together.
Read our full statement with @amzn4climate.bsky.social @cwaunion.bsky.social, Amazon Labor Union, United Video Game Workers, + more: medium.com/@notechforap...
As workers who make these companies run, here are our demands:
Executive leadership at Google, Microsoft, and Amazon must reject the Pentagon’s advances and provide workers with transparency about contracts with other repressive state agencies including DHS, CBP, and ICE.
Our employers are already complicit in providing their technologies to power mass atrocities and war crimes; capitulating to the Pentagon’s intimidation will only further implicate our labor in violence and repression.
We are writing to urge our own companies to also refuse to comply should they or the frontier labs they invest in enter into further contracts with the Pentagon.
This intimidation is an ultimatum: AI companies can either agree to the Pentagon’s terms, or be designated a “supply chain risk,” or forced to provide the technology through the Defense Production Act.
We are speaking out today because the Pentagon is demanding that Anthropic abandon two major safety guardrails for Claude, which is the only frontier AI model currently deployed in classified Department of War operations.
We represent groups of workers from Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Our organizations typically focus on a range of issues, from better workplace protections to the pursuit of environmental justice and the demilitarization of our technology.
This is our first statement together.
“As a Software Engineer in Google Cloud, it is horrifying to think that the code I write could be used by the Israeli Military in the first ever AI powered genocide,” said Google Cloud software engineer William Van Der Laar from Sunnyvale in a statement. “We did not come to Google to work on technology that kills. By engaging in this contract leadership has betrayed our trust, our AI Principles, and our humanity.”
Anyways we knew this was coming. "Don't use AI for weapons systems" is a principle I care a lot about and I think it's more important every day
There have been a lot of significant moments like this that get a bit of press but kinda fly under the radar given how important they are to the future of humanity
There are a LOT of other causes out there more worthy of your help right now.
But if you are a tech worker or otherwise interested in trying to protect workers' right to organize, we would be grateful for your donation or a reshare. Litigation is expensive.
Tech workers like those at @notechforapartheid.bsky.social have been warning about going down this path for quite a while now
Truly eye-popping AI lobbying states from @publiccitizen.bsky.social's latest report. A quarter of all lobbyists worked on behalf of AI last year, and the number of data center lobbyists is up over 650% since 2020.
Well this story blew up. Went to the front page of reddit, hacker news, Gizmodo. People donated thousands of dollars to the legal fund of Jeff Sovern, who dismantled 13 Flock surveillance cameras. The response was near-universal enthusiasm for the project of smashing invasive, exploitative tech.
so inspired by my former co-workers and current co-organizers for leading the charge against Google Cloud for hosting data and AI for CBP and ICE
theintercept.com/2025/04/03/g...
No Tech for Apartheid is building labor power against technology fueling surveillance, apartheid, genocide, militarism, and state violence—from the U.S. to Palestine.
Are you a Google or Amazon worker? Join us: solidarity.notechforapartheid.com/join
This work is urgent. And workers have a unique postionality to resist.
That's why we’re coming together as Google workers to demand an end to this disgraceful use of our labor.
We welcome all Google workers join us and sign our petition at www.googlers-against-ice.com
Google execs have contracted with CBP to embed machine learning technology into existing Elbit watchtowers along the U.S.-Mexico border wall, supplied cloud services for Palantir's immigrationOS deportation platform, & willingly turned over private user information directly to ICE.
In this moment of rising global fascism, Google execs have sold this same palette of technologies to the DHS, ICE, & CBP to power its violent assault on immigrants and our cities at large.