‘Big Tech is streamlining this genocide against Palestinians’
Earlier we reported on protests by Google staff calling on the company to drop Project Nimbus, a $1.2bn contract with Israel jointly held with Amazon.
Google software engineer Emaan Haseem was one of the demonstrators outside the tech giant’s office in Sunnyvale, California.
“Not only is the lack of transparency concerning, but just the context of this contract taking place. We know the genocide taking place in Gaza is the first AI-powered genocide. So we find that Big Tech is streamlining this genocide against Palestinians,” Haseem said.
Big Tech ‘basically complicit’ in civilian deaths in Gaza
Ramesh Srinivasan, a professor of information studies at UCLA, says “there’s a shocking lack of transparency” over Google’s Project Nimbus that’s being used by the Israeli military in Gaza.
Big technology companies working with Israel’s army could be found complicit in the attacks on civilians there, he told Al Jazeera.
“Corporate America Big Tech is actually aligned with many of the Israeli military’s actions. The fact that AI systems are being used indicates there’s a lack of regard by the Israeli state. Everybody knows these AI systems will make mistakes,” said Srinivasan.
“There will be wrongful deaths and wrongful assassinations that we’ve seen with so many civilians in Gaza. They’re basically complicit.”
Google employees arrested protesting company’s ties with Israeli government
Employees of the tech giant have been arrested after holding sit-in protests in the company’s New York and Sunnyvale, California offices for more than nine hours. Earlier, we reported that the protesters said they would not leave until Google pulls out of a $1.2bn artificial intelligence and surveillance contract between Israel, Google and Amazon.
Google employees have long spoken out against project “Nimbus”, with Palestinian employees describing “institutionalised bias” within the company.
BREAKING— ARRESTS OF GOOGLE WORKERS BEGIN IN NYC
WE WILL CONTINUE TO ORGANIZE@ThomasOrTK YOU ARE A GENOCIDE PROFITEER
DROP PROJECT NIMBUS NOW
NO TECH FOR GENOCIDE pic.twitter.com/pxBgLQUuD7
— No Tech For Apartheid (@NoTechApartheid) April 17, 2024
