Employees working in Google DeepMind’s UK offices have voted to unionize over concerns about the company’s defense work with Israel and the Pentagon.
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If successful, DeepMind — which is central to Google’s efforts to develop artificial intelligence — would be the first frontier AI lab to unionize.
In a letter sent to management on Tuesday and seen by Business Insider, employees in the DeepMind unit requested recognition of the Communication Workers Union and Unite the Union.
The vote to unionize comes days after the Pentagon confirmed it had signed deals with Google and a handful of other AI labs for classified military work. Employees pushing back on the deal are concerned that it could open the door for Google’s technology to be used for autonomous weapons and mass surveillance of American citizens.
Some Google employees previously told Business Insider they were concerned that the company would not be able to enforce red lines on classified operations.
Unionizing employees also want an end to a $1.2 billion deal that Google signed in 2021 to supply the Israeli government with cloud services, according to a press release from union organizers. Some staff have pushed back on the contract, known as Project Nimbus. In 2024, Google fired 50 employees following a sit-in protest over the Nimbus deal.
At least 1,000 staff tied to Google DeepMind’s London office would be represented if the unionization efforts are successful, a representative for the efforts said. DeepMind is headquartered in London’s King’s Cross, although many employees are based in the US and other parts of Europe. The unit has roughly 6,000 employees globally.
Google did not immediately respond to a Business Insider request for comment. The letter to unionize was first reported by The Guardian.
The union efforts were part of a wider campaign by staff who are considering in-person protests and “research strikes” — abstaining from work to develop the company’s core AI products — per the press release.
Last week, more than 600 Google employees urged CEO Sundar Pichai not to sign an agreement with the Pentagon for classified operations. In a letter to staff, sent shortly after, Kent Walker, Alphabet’s president of global affairs, defended the company’s work with the US Department of Defense, according to a copy of the letter reviewed by Business Insider.
Walker said the company had “proudly” worked with defense departments since Google’s earliest days, and said the company believes “it’s important to support national security in a thoughtful and responsible way, as part of a broad consortium of AI labs, tech companies, and cloud providers.”
Walker said the company supported a consensus among AI labs that “today’s AI tools are not appropriate for domestic mass surveillance or use in connection with autonomous weapons without appropriate human oversight.”
The unionization letter gives Google DeepMind management 10 working days to voluntarily recognize the CWU and Unite, or take other steps such as mediation, or the organizers will launch legal proceedings to gain recognition.
