1 min read

Google quietly drops its promise to keep AI out of warfare and spying

Google has updated its AI guidelines, removing pledges against using the technology for weapons or surveillance. Previously, its AI principles prohibited developing AI for technologies designed to “cause or are likely to cause overall harm”

Google quietly drops its promise to keep AI out of warfare and spying / TRT World

February 5, 2025

Google has revised its guidelines when it comes to artificial intelligence, removing its vows not to use the technology for weapons or surveillance.

The company’s AI principles page had previously stated that it would not design or deploy the technology for weapons designed to hurt people or "that gather or use information for surveillance violating internationally accepted norms."

That wording was absent from the updated AI principles shared by Google on February 4, 2025.

A blog post by Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis and research labs senior vice president James Manyika said the company's AI principles — first published in 2018 — required updating because the technology had evolved.

Explore