Senior engineer quits Google, cites concerns about AI military use

Dave Kitchin, a senior software engineer at Google, has publicly announced departing the company due to ethical objections to cooperation with the United States military.

Kitchin explained his decision to leave the company after 12 years in a LinkedIn post, where he cited Google’s decision to remove restrictions on using AI for military applications and the company's full focus on AI.

In addition, Kitchin wrote that the military demonstrated itself to be “an unreliable counterparty.” He said he wasn’t convinced that it would honor restrictions on the use of Google technology even if the company tried to impose them.

“I have told each of my managers over the years that the one thing that will get me to quit is asking me to work on weapons. That used to be a merely theoretical concern, but it is now a very real one,” he wrote.

Kitchin emphasized that Google is an international company. Therefore, he refused to contribute to the “endangerment and possibly the death of coworkers or their families, friends, or neighbors.”

The decision was catalyzed by a LinkedIn post linking AI to a US strike on an Iranian school in February, killing at least 165 people, mostly schoolchildren.

While it is hard to tell if AI is to blame for the deaths of children, the US military is using multiple AI systems, including Palantir’s Project Maven and Anthropic’s Claude, in the current war.

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, relaxed its guardrails on the use of AI for military purposes in 2025, stating that businesses and democratic governments need to work together on AI to support national security.

Have thoughts about this topic? Others do, too. Join them in the discussion.

However, increasing AI use by militaries raises concerns about the potential destruction that could be brought by fully autonomous weapons.

When Anthropic refused to remove guardrails against its systems being used for domestic mass surveillance and powering autonomous weapons, the Pentagon designated the company as a “supply chain risk,” effectively blacklisting it from military contracts.

As Anthropic is fighting the decision in court, its rival OpenAI stepped in and announced a deal with the Pentagon. The company’s CEO, Sam Altman, reportedly told employees that they don’t have control over operational decisions made by the military.

Unlock more exclusive Cybernews content on YouTube.