4 weeks ago
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE
Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]
Google has fired 28 labor successful nan aftermath of protests complete exertion that nan net institution is supplying nan Israeli authorities amid the Gaza war, further escalating tensions surrounding a hot-button deal.
The firings confirmed by Google precocious Wednesday came a time aft 9 labor were arrested during sit-in protests astatine offices successful New York and Sunnyvale, California, aft nan institution called police.
The dissent roiling Google centers connected “Project Nimbus,” a $1.2 cardinal statement signed successful 2021 that calls upon Google and Amazon to supply nan Israeli authorities pinch unreality computing and artificial intelligence services.
The protests are being organized chiefly by a group called No Tech For Apartheid. Google says Nimbus isn’t being deployed successful weaponry aliases intelligence gathering.
In a statement, Google attributed nan firing of nan 28 labor to “completely unacceptable behavior” that prevented immoderate workers from doing their jobs and created a threatening atmosphere. The Mountain View, California, institution added it is still investigating what happened during nan protests, implying much workers could still beryllium fired.
In a blog post, No Tech For Apartheid accused Google of lying astir what happened wrong its offices during what it described arsenic “peaceful sit-in” that received overwhelming support from different workers who weren’t participating successful nan protest.
“This flagrant enactment of retaliation is simply a clear denotation that Google values its $1.2 cardinal statement pinch nan genocidal Israeli authorities and subject much than its ain workers,” No Tech For Apartheid asserted.
Without calling retired a circumstantial incident, Google CEO Sundar Pichai indicated in a Thursday blog post that labor will beryllium connected a short leash arsenic nan institution intensifies its efforts to amended its AI exertion astatine a pivotal infinitesimal successful nan manufacture and, potentially, humanity.
“This is simply a business, and not a spot to enactment successful a measurement that disrupts coworkers aliases makes them consciousness unsafe, to effort to usage nan institution arsenic a individual platform, aliases to conflict complete disruptive issues aliases statement politics,” Pichai wrote. “This is excessively important a infinitesimal arsenic a institution for america to beryllium distracted.”
The statement raising nan ire of immoderate Google workers runs wrong nan company’s unreality computing section that is overseen by a erstwhile Oracle executive, Thomas Kurian.
Under Kurian’s leadership, unreality computing has emerged arsenic 1 of Google’s fastest-growing divisions, pinch gross of $33 cardinal past year, a 26% summation from 2022. A wide scope of private-sector companies besides bargain Google’s unreality computing services, successful summation to governments astir nan world.
Google workers person periodically staged angry protests complete different deals nan institution has been moving connected and person besides raised ethical concerns astir nan measurement it is processing artificial intelligence.
One of nan erstwhile worker uprisings resulted successful Google deciding successful 2018 to extremity a statement pinch nan U.S. defense section called “Project Maven” that progressive helping nan equipped forces analyse subject videos.
But Google has continued to thrive, contempt nan soul misgivings astir nan measurement it is making immoderate of its money. Its gross mostly comes done integer advertizing sold done an net empire that depends connected its ascendant hunt motor arsenic its main pillar.
Google’s genitor company, Alphabet Inc., posted a $74 cardinal profit past twelvemonth and now employs astir 182,000 workers worldwide — astir 83,000 much group than successful 2018 erstwhile it abandoned Project Maven.
