Google AI Staff Want Freedom To Warn Public About Risks, Cite AI's Impact On Humanity: Report

Workers at Google's artificial intelligence division are asking the company to free them from strict non-disparagement agreements so they can warn the public about the risks of AI. According to a report by The Washington Post, staff inside Google DeepMind in London said their employment contracts forbid them from criticising the company for the rest of their lives, even after they leave.

The contracts were reviewed by The Washington Post, along with interviews with two current employees who spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing action from the company.

The employees said these agreements stop them from speaking publicly about the possible impact of AI. One worker told the paper, "This technology is just really consequential, and it is also changing really fast. The public wants to know and deserves to know, and often this is the only way that people find out about the harms and potential harms that are happening."

The issue came to light after former DeepMind employee Sofia Liguori told the BBC last month that she ignored the restrictions in her contract to speak against Google building military AI. Following that, current staff in the UK checked their own contracts and found similar lifetime non-disparagement clauses. 

Dozens of employees recently discussed the language on an internal messaging platform, with some directly criticising the clause and others posting an emoji of the text "1984", referring to the dystopian novel.

British law does protect whistleblowers who speak in the public interest, but one employee said the clause still creates fear. "If it is not enforceable, then the reason is to basically intimidate people," the employee said.

On Friday, a Google executive responded to the internal discussion and said the company would not enforce the clause for former employees. A spokesperson said, "We have always encouraged an open dialogue about safety and responsibility. Recently, we have updated our terms for new hires, which included removing the post-termination aspect of non-disparagement clauses."

However, current staff told The Washington Post that the company should remove the clause completely from existing contracts as well, not just for new hires. One worker said, "The people who work on this technology have a role to play in shaping where it is going. It is not just another technology. It has potentially very large impacts on humanity and democracy."