Sofia Liguori,
a research engineer working at DeepMind, resigned in protest this week from Google’s pioneering artificial intelligence laboratory. Unlike a wave of other AI researchers who have
quit
over
fears
AI might someday turn against humanity, Liguori stepped down over concern about her employer’s current practices.
Disenchanted and disturbed by Google’s military contracts with the U.S. and Israel, Liguori says she could no longer stand working at a company that was going to help kill people or help build technology that “automatically makes it easier to escalate the brutality of war.”
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Liguori joined DeepMind in 2023 and began working on AI systems aimed at more efficiently routing power through the electrical grid, a peacetime engineering problem. But as she learned of Google’s
Project Nimbus contract
, which furnishes Israel’s military and top weapons manufacturers with a suite of
advanced
artificial intelligence tools, she began to question her role in the company, and the
company’s role in the world
. The day after Google announced its classified military AI contract with the Pentagon in April, Liguori staged a personal sick-out, using a combination of sick leave and holiday time off to cease her work.
In a letter
she sent internally informing DeepMind and her colleagues of her resignation, Liguori urged them to “stay human” in the face of military work. “I no longer believe that our technology will have a net positive impact on society. I think there’s a fantasy world where AI can help decarbonize grids, cut waste, protect ecosystems, and
benefit humanity
,” she wrote. “But it’s not this world, and it’s not
this type
of general purpose AI we are racing to develop. Racing to deploy agentic AI in
this
society and historical moment is a terrible idea, and will definitely be a net evil.”
The Intercept spoke to Liguori, an Italian national
… [more]
