Technology worker organisations and unions across the United States representing about 700,000 employees have issued a joint statement urging major technology companies to reject demands from the Pentagon related to artificial intelligence safety guardrails.
The statement, published by the advocacy group No Tech For Apartheid, calls on leadership at companies including Amazon, Google, and Microsoft to maintain restrictions on how AI technologies are used in military operations. The organisations say their members work across the technology sector and are raising concerns about the role their companies could play in surveillance and autonomous weapon systems.
Workers raise concerns over AI guardrails
The letter was released amid tensions between the US Department of Defense and AI company Anthropic. According to the statement, the Pentagon has asked Anthropic to remove two safety guardrails from its AI model Claude.
These restrictions include a prohibition on mass domestic surveillance and a ban on fully autonomous systems capable of using lethal force without human oversight. The organisations claim these safeguards were part of earlier agreements tied to government contracts.
The statement argues that removing these guardrails could allow broader use of AI technologies in surveillance and autonomous weapons systems. Worker groups say such developments could increase the risk of AI being used in ways that affect civil liberties and public safety.
Calls for transparency from tech companies
The organisations are asking executives at Amazon, Google, and Microsoft to reject similar demands if they arise in their own contracts with the US Department of Defense or other government agencies.
The letter also calls for greater transparency around agreements involving agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
According to the statement, these companies already provide cloud infrastructure through services such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, which host government data and support a range of federal projects.
Demand for regulation
Worker groups say the issue highlights the need for federal regulation governing the use of artificial intelligence in military and surveillance activities. In the absence of such regulation, they say employees are organizing to push companies to set internal limits on how their technologies are deployed.
The joint statement invites workers across the technology industry to participate in efforts aimed at ensuring their labour is not used for mass surveillance or autonomous weapon systems.
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