Google, OpenAI staff press for curbs on military AI after Iran strikes and Anthropic blacklist

Employees at Google and OpenAI are mobilizing to limit military uses of artificial intelligence, escalating tensions between Silicon Valley and Washington after U.S. strikes on Iran and the Pentagon’s move to blacklist Anthropic’s models. An open letter garnering hundreds of signatures from workers at the tech giants urges clear red lines against mass surveillance and autonomous weapons, as Google reportedly negotiates to deploy its Gemini model on classified systems. Advocacy groups are pressing Amazon, Google and Microsoft to add stricter safeguards to cloud and AI deals, while Google’s chief scientist Jeff Dean publicly criticized mass surveillance amid internal concerns. The dispute revives earlier flashpoints over Project Maven and Project Nimbus and has prompted calls for Congress to review the Defense Department’s “supply chain risk” designation against Anthropic, underscoring the growing friction between rapid AI commercialization and national security demands.

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