Google Employees Are Organizing To Protest the Company’s Secret Search Engine

Google employees are demanding greater transparency from their employer and confronting management with their ethical concerns about a project named Dragonfly, a controversial censored search app for the Chinese market.

Employees are circulating a list of demands for the company in a letter obtained by BuzzFeed News (posted in full, below), calling for an ethics review structure with rank-and-file employee representatives, the appointment of ombudspeople, and an ethical assessment of Google projects including Dragonfly and Maven, Google’s contract with the Pentagon to build AI-assisted drone technology.

“Many of us believe that Dragonfly poses a threat to freedom of expression and political dissent globally, and violates our AI principles," two employees wrote in an email distributing the demand list.Google Employees Are Organizing To Protest The Company’s Secret, Censored Search Engine For China{:target=”_blank”}

It’s almost as if designers are starting to care deeply about ethics and the moral implications of our apps{:target=“_blank}. Time to think about AI Ethics 😊