Latest posts
Google DeepMind in talks with UK unions amid staff concern over US and Israel’s AI use
Exclusive: Google DeepMind agrees to Acas talks after workers sign petitions about governments’ use of AI for defence and intelligence Google DeepMind has agreed to enter formal talks with UK tech workers that could lead to trade union representation amid growing staff concerns about the use of its AI by the US and Israeli governments’…
AI engineer says Google unfairly sacked him after he protested against work for Israel
Exclusive: Employment tribunal claim says worker lost his job after distributing leaflets throughout London office Google is facing a legal challenge from an AI engineer who claims he was unfairly dismissed after he protested against its work for the Israeli government, in the latest sign of growing concern about the social and ethical impacts of…
Head of Microsoft’s Israel branch to step down after inquiry into dealings with Israeli military
The inquiry came after the Guardian revealed Israel used company technology to support mass surveillance of Palestinian phone calls The head of Microsoft’s Israeli subsidiary will step down in the wake of an inquiry that has scrutinised its business dealings with the Israeli military. Microsoft ordered the inquiry last year in response to a Guardian…
Iran war heralds era of AI-powered bombing quicker than ‘speed of thought’
Speed and scale of US military’s AI war planning raises fears human decision-making may be sidelined The use of AI tools to enable attacks on Iran heralds a new era of bombing quicker than “the speed of thought”, experts have said, amid fears human decision-makers could be sidelined. Anthropic’s AI model, Claude, was reportedly used…
Revealed: Israel demanded Google and Amazon use secret ‘wink’ to sidestep legal orders
The tech giants agreed to extraordinary terms to clinch a lucrative contract with the Israeli government, documents show When Google and Amazon negotiated a major $1.2bn cloud-computing deal in 2021, their customer – the Israeli government – had an unusual demand: agree to use a secret code as part of an arrangement that would become…
How Israel used Microsoft technology to spy on Palestinians – podcast
Harry Davies on how Microsoft’s cloud was used to facilitate mass surveillance of Palestinians Yossi Sariel was in charge of one of the branches of Israel’s intelligence agency. When he took over Unit 8200 he arrived with ambitious plans – to use tech to change the way intelligence was gathered and analysed. The Guardian’s Harry…
Microsoft investigates Israeli military’s use of Azure cloud storage
Concerns that tech company’s Israel-based staff may have concealed key details of work follow Guardian investigation Microsoft is investigating how Israel’s military surveillance agency, Unit 8200, is using its Azure cloud storage platform, amid concerns the company’s staff in Israel may have concealed key details about its work on sensitive military projects. Senior executives are…
‘A million calls an hour’: Israel relying on Microsoft cloud for expansive surveillance of Palestinians
Revealed: The Israeli military undertook an ambitious project to store a giant trove of Palestinians’ phone calls on Microsoft’s servers in Europe One afternoon in late 2021, Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, met with the commander of Israel’s military surveillance agency, Unit 8200. On the spy chief’s agenda: moving vast amounts of top secret intelligence…