Google DeepMind workers in London have voted to form a union in an attempt to block the artificial intelligence lab from providing technology to the US and Israeli militaries.
In letter addressed to Google’s managing director for the UK and Ireland, Debbie Weinstein, employees asked the company to recognize the Communication Workers Union and Unite the Union as joint representatives of DeepMind employees.
“Fundamentally, the unionization push is about Google adhering to its own ethical standards regarding artificial intelligence, how it is monetized, how the products work and who it works with,” John Chadfield, national technology officer at CWU, tells WIRED. “Through the unionization process, workers are collectively in a much better position to take their seats [demands] in the face of increasingly deaf management.”
The push for unionization began in February 2025 with Alphabet, Google’s parent company lien removed According to a DeepMind employee who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, artificial intelligence should not be used for purposes such as weapons development and surveillance, in line with ethical guidelines.
“Many people here have bought into Google DeepMind’s slogan of ‘responsibly building AI for the benefit of humanity,'” a DeepMind employee told WIRED. “The direction of travel is to further militarize the AI models we build here.”
Increasingly, these concerns are being reflected across the industry. At the end of February, DeepMind and OpenAI employees signed an open letter in support of Anthropic after the US Department of Defense sought to designate the lab as a supply chain risk for refusing to authorize the utilize of artificial intelligence in autonomous weapons or for mass surveillance of US citizens. Last week in The Recent York Times. reported that Google has entered into an agreement allowing the Pentagon to utilize artificial intelligence for “any lawful government purpose.” (On Friday, the US Department of Defense confirmed that it has made agreements with seven leading artificial intelligence companies – including Google, SpaceX, OpenAI and Microsoft – to utilize their models on secret networks). About 600 Google employees in the US apparently signed a letter protesting against the transaction. “We think so [any lawful purpose] the clause is so vague as to be virtually meaningless,” says a DeepMind employee.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company has already defended its contracts with government organizations. “We are proud to be part of a broad consortium of leading AI labs, technology and cloud companies providing AI services and infrastructure for national security,” said Jenn Crider, spokeswoman for Google New York Times last week. “We uphold the private and public sector consensus that artificial intelligence should not be used for domestic mass surveillance or to produce autonomous weapons without appropriate human oversight.”
In 2021, Google employees in the US established the Alphabet Trade Union. The union is not recognized by Alphabet for collective bargaining purposes, but it has done so before agreements were negotiated on behalf of Google contractors.
A DeepMind employee tells WIRED that if workers manage to form a union in the UK, they will likely demand that Google withdraw from long-term contract with the Israeli armyand push for greater transparency around the utilize of AI products, as well as providing the kinds of exemptions made possible by automation.
The letter said that if Google did not cooperate, employees would ask for: arbitration committee force the company to recognize trade unions.
Since the turn of the year, both Anthropic and OpenAI have announced large-scale expansions of their operations in London. CWU hopes that unionization efforts at DeepMind will encourage workers at those labs to take similar action.
“Those conversations are ongoing,” Chadfield says. “Employees from other border laboratories saw what Google DeepMind employees had done. They also came to us asking for facilitate.”