Google Ethics Researcher Resigns: Protests Company Signing Open-Ended AI Military Contract with the Pentagon Google DeepMind safety researcher Alex Turner announced his resignation in a post, protesting the company’s open-ended AI military contract with the Pentagon. Turner stated that back in 2018, Google had promised not to participate in the development or use of lethal autonomous weapons, but now this contract has almost no restrictions. He revealed that he had previously tried to stop this, drafting proposals and reaching out to DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, but the proposal was ultimately shelved until the contract was signed. He mentioned that Anthropic had previously been recognized for resisting similar pressure from the Pentagon and sticking to its red lines, which was the direction he had hoped Google would follow.