Why I Left Google DeepMind

I fought against Google's Pentagon AI deal from the inside. Powerful people and institutions failed to keep their AI ethics promises under pressure.

I’ve released a post that is important to me. You can read it directly, or sample the Twitter thread first.

My Twitter thread: I resigned from Google DeepMind because it broke its founding promise by selling AI to the military without restrictions against killer robots or mass spying.

For months, I worked to stop this but watched powerful ethicists and institutions choose silence.

My efforts began when DHS agents killed Renée Good and Alex Pretti. I was disturbed to learn Google sells Cloud services to the DHS supply chain.

My efforts soon expanded to military AI: the Pentagon threatened Anthropic with economic destruction unless they handed over their AI with no restrictions. I worried that Google would cave to similar threats.

What hurt most was watching AI ethics leaders do nothing. When the Pentagon threatened Anthropic, I was at a conference held by the International Association for Safe and Ethical AI. I lobbied IASEAI leaders to act.

On stage, IASEAI leadership announced a member vote on making a statement supporting Anthropic. ~Unanimous show of hands supported it. But the vote vanished. IASEAI went silent, ignoring two months of opportunities to sway Google.

Inside Google: I organized a petition to Chief Scientist Jeff Dean asking him to fight. Over 250 GDM employees signed. I also asked Jeff to sign an amicus brief backing Anthropic. He did, which was awesome.

Jeff was outspoken against government abuse of AI. I thought that if Jeff told Google he'd leave on an unethical deal, he could force ethics restrictions or stop the deal. He's that important.

To prepare, I wrote a principled alternative for Google: 25 pages of contract language & oversight mechanisms, praised by a leading military-law expert.

I proposed that Jeff head the potential Review Body, but he didn’t champion the proposal. In the end, I don’t think he used his leverage. I think he could have stopped the deal but didn’t.

As a last attempt, I directly messaged Google DeepMind's CEO, Demis Hassabis. He told me to send my proposal to two senior policy staff. They let the proposal wilt unattended until Google signed the deal.

In 2018, Demis, Jeff, & DeepMind itself pledged to neither "participate in nor support the development [..] or use of lethal autonomous weapons."

Google signed, yet these pledgers remain. I see three honest paths: explain, renounce the pledge, or quit. Silence isn't one of them.

Here's a path Demis has chosen: deny anything has changed. He claims "nothing's changed about our principles", yet he co-authored the post removing the weapons prohibition from Google's AI Principles. Both cannot be true.

Many hope that when things get bad enough, someone powerful will say "no." I tested that for months. Anthropic defended its red lines, but most did not. Pledges of conscience often vaporize on contact with power.

My full account: https://turntrout.com/why-i-left-google-deepmind