The UK government have put out a press release boasting about its new partnership with artificial intelligence (AI) firm Google DeepMind. In case the name’s ringing a bell, DeepMind was embroiled in a massive NHS patient data mishandling controversy back in 2016.
That’s the same Google DeepMind that’s selling £1bn in weapons technology to Israel.
Of course Labour are cosying up to Google DeepMind
The partnership is part of the government’s £137m AI for Science Strategy. Labour tech secretary Liz Kendall explained that:
DeepMind serves as the perfect example of what UK-US tech collaboration can deliver – a firm with roots on both sides of the Atlantic backing British innovators to shape the curve of technological progress.
This agreement could help to unlock cleaner energy, smarter public services, and new opportunities which will benefit communities up and down the country.
Science and technology are at the heart of our mission to drive a new era of national renewal – and partnerships like this will help us go further, faster.
A new era of national renewal shaping the curve of technological progress. Sounds marvelous.
What this boils down to for the moment is DeepMind building its first automated research lab in the UK sometime next year. The government is hoping that this will help deliver the cleaner energy and smarter public services Kendall was on about.
The partnership will also include links to the UK’s AI Security Institute, to help ensure that “AI is developed safely and responsibly”. So obviously we’re trying to head another NHS data scandal off at the pass here, though of course the press release doesn’t mention it by name.
Project Nimbus: Israel ties
Only, there’s one small problem with trying to ensure that this new AI development is safe and responsible. That is, Google is already selling the AI tech it develops to Israel. Presumably it’s helping to ensure that the genocidal war machine stays up to date with the modern world in a safe, responsible fashion.
Back in April 2024, Google employees staged protests against their work being used to fuel Israeli apartheid. Reporting on the demos, Al Jazeera explained that:
Known as Project Nimbus, the joint contract between Google and Amazon signed in 2021 aims to provide cloud computing infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology services to the Israeli government and its military
Tina Vachovsky, a software engineer at Google, said:
It is impossible to feel excited and energised to work when you know your company is providing the Israeli government products that are helping it commit atrocities in Palestine.
Google fired 28 of its employees for their participation in the protests. It claimed that they had violated the company code of conduct and its “harassment, discrimination and retaliation” policy. On top of that, cops arrested nine Google employees for their part in the demos at New York and Sunnyvale.
Google released a statement insisting that the Nimbus contract:
is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.
However, the Israeli military has been a stakeholder since the contract’s very beginnings. The Times of Israel also reported that the contract specifically prevents Google and Amazon from halting services to the Israeli government due to boycotts.
Workers moving to unionise
More recently, in April 2025, Reutersreported that UK DeepMind employees are looking to unionise. More specifically, they were looking to join the Communication Workers Union (CWU), specifically in order to challenge their employer’s ties to the Israeli military.
Roughly 300 workers at the company’s London office were involved in the unionisation drive. One engineer stated that:
We’re putting two and two together and we think the technology we’re developing is being used in the conflict in Gaza.
This is basically cutting-edge AI that we’re providing to an ongoing conflict. People don’t want their work used like this.
This is the company that Kendall, Starmer, and the Labour Party want the UK to have a hand in. A company that’s busy funneling smarter and smarter tech to Israel and its military. And, for that matter, a company that fires its employees when they try to object.
Actually, you know what? When you put it that way, Labour and Google Deepmind sound like they were made for one another.
Featured image via the Canary
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