Google has signed a classified deal that allows the US Department of Defense to use its AI models for "any lawful government purpose," The Information reports. The agreement was reported less than a day after Google employees demanded CEO Sundar Pichai block the Pentagon from using its AI amid concerns that it would be used in "inhumane or extremely harmful ways."
If the agreement is confirmed, it would place Google alongside OpenAI and xAI, which have also made classified AI deals with the US government. Anthropic was also among that list until it was blacklisted by the Pentagon for refusing the Department of Defense's demands to remove weapon and surveillance-related guardrails from its AI models.
Citing a single anonymous source "with knowledge of the situation," The Information reports that the deal states that both parties have agreed that the search giant's AI systems shouldn't be used for domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weapons "without appropriate human oversight and control." But the contract also says it doesn't give Google "any right to control or veto lawful government operational decision-making," which would suggest the agreed restrictions are more of a pinky promise than legally binding obligations. The deal also requires Google to assist with making adjustments to its AI safety settings and filters at the government's request.
"We are proud to be part of a broad consortium of leading AI labs and technology and cloud companies providing AI services and infrastructure in support of national security," a Google spokesperson said in a statement to The Information, adding that the new agreement is an amendment to its existing government deal. "We remain committed to the private and public sector consensus that AI should not be used for domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weaponry without appropriate human oversight."
(Score: 4, Touché) by c0lo on Saturday May 02, @09:09AM (2 children)
Department of War admits it is naturally stupider than the artificial intelligence.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday May 02, @11:25AM (1 child)
AND drunker!
Drunkee? Drunkiestist? Drum-kitist? Durnkissed...
I, oh, i gots it... Hegseth!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02, @04:42PM
Drunkarderest... Yeap, that's the one (don't confuse with him with Dmitry Medvedev, Putin has a lot more common sense than the orange clown).
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday May 02, @09:15AM (7 children)
Pentagon announces deal with seven AI companies for classified systems [aljazeera.com]
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday May 04, @01:07AM (6 children)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday May 04, @08:11AM (5 children)
Fair bet it will crash before Trump leaves office. At least that's Trump's business acumen so far.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday May 04, @12:03PM (4 children)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday May 05, @09:39AM (3 children)
Ummm...
Google search warning: total stock value of large AI players [https]
Gemini offers:
Another pick: [yahoo.com] (November 18, 2025)
What do you reckon, how large the rescue package the feds can afford this time around?
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday May 05, @10:58AM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday May 05, @11:48AM (1 child)
In AI? Except for the walls of the datacentres, how sure are you about their assets value [reddit.com]?
Last time they saved the flow of money in the whole economy.
This time, with or without AI, life can go on - nothing, except the stock market, collapses if AI crashes. Not like AI constitutes today a good percentage of the income in US economy.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 06, @01:28AM
An asset doesn't have to be in AI to be exploited. For example, Oracle's recent sale of its healthcare division [soylentnews.org]. From that story:
Selling that non-AI asset doesn't just give Oracle more money, but it drops it back into the lending zone for some of these banks.
There's no expiration date on that excuse. Keep in mind that last time should have been just a failure of some part of the real estate sector. It ended up being much more than that.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Mojibake Tengu on Saturday May 02, @12:00PM (4 children)
Well, Lawful Evil is still Evil. 'Any Lawful' obviously means 'Evil Included' without saying that.
You already classified me. I am Chaotic Good. No tolerance for Lawful Evil. Not even sorry about that.
Frankly, current wars designed and executed by Palantir are not as spectacular by actual results as they were expected.
Something got wrong.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Unixnut on Saturday May 02, @12:25PM (3 children)
To me "lawful" just means "not against the law", with no bearing on whether something is ethical, moral or evil.
Really in the context of government contracts whether something is "lawful" is kind of irrelevant, as government writes the laws. So in effect they can do anything they want with the technology.
(Score: 3, Informative) by anubi on Saturday May 02, @01:09PM
In the USA, the law is not necessarily the act.
It is often applied differently to different classes of people.
Unlike Natural Law, which respects no person. It applies to all.
Most of our law is just a pecking order defining who can get away doing what.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by krishnoid on Saturday May 02, @05:06PM (1 child)
Here's a handy, if not authoritative description [d20srd.org] for how to disambiguate the various orientations. It's at least a good starting place to help with practical decision-making.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Mojibake Tengu on Sunday May 03, @12:41PM
Thanks. Please, accept this slop link as a gift.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdV3_ybuSo0 [youtube.com]
It's fine example of what the LLMs are perfect for.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Tokolosh on Sunday May 03, @03:32AM
I hear all the time, "It's the law!" Usually it's not constitutional.
The Judicial branch of government has been abject in protecting the People from the Leviathan - for almost 250 years. It's a one-way ratchet of lost liberty.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday May 03, @03:04PM
Thats kinda wild as even "carefully crafted code" often has disclaimers about not being used for nuclear reactors, aerospace, implanted medical devices, etc.
There are code development processes and techniques to get approval for stuff like aerospace fly by wire code or medical implants, but most companies don't follow them and their liability insurance companies won't insure them for running nuclear reactors.
So interesting that AI is only for companies "too big to fail" who self-insure.
Also pretty scary that aircraft will fly overhead what had the avionics written by vibe coders with no QA/QC just "move fast and break things" such as nuclear reactors etc.