Google DeepMind Workers Vote to Unionize Over Military AI Deals | UK staff of Google’s AI research lab hope to block the use of the company’s artificial intelligence models in military settings.

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www.wired.com/story/google-deepmind-workers-vot…

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As soon as people stop looking, Google will shut down the whole office. It’s how tons of huge companies get around “can’t lay off union workers”.

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They just spent £1.3bn on building that office

Even the most egregious caricature of a union buster is gonna baulk at throwing that investment away

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They can rent out or sell the building and recoup a measure of that investment. It’s nothing compared to the windfall they’ll get from selling snake oil on a military procurement contract.

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That’s pocket change for Google, which made $132 bn profit just last year. They can sell it and write off the small difference as a loss.

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The DeepMind employee tells WIRED that if the staff succeeds in unionizing in the UK, they will likely demand that Google pull out of its long-standing contract with the Israeli military and seek greater transparency over how its AI products will be used, with some sort of assurance relating to layoffs made possible by automation.

All good things. Layoffs based on AI aren’t really that provable, so I see it as beneficial to put the squeeze on a company that otherwise has a financial benefit in using it as a scapegoat

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Hell yeah. Apes together strong

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Bit late I’m afraid

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When it comes to making a stand, better late than never.

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I’d agree but im afraid that’s not even all of Google ai workers,just the UK ones

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Good, keep going, unionize all of Google/Alphabet.

This is the only way to save the company long term.

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does it need saving though

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Not necessarily, but for anyone that wants to this is the only way to keep Google from imploding.

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Unions are for saving people FROM companies misusing their labor. They arent to save the companies, thats what the CEOs want.

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Like, good on them, but they helped build the torment nexus. What did they think it was going to be used for?

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I hope they’re not using their google accounts for anything important, they might suddenly be missing stuff or the whole account.

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