Report reveals Google's secret AI support for Israel amid war on Gaza

Google has continued providing AI technologies to Israel's defence apparatus despite public attempts to distance itself from the country's military operations, according to a report by the Washington Post.

According to the newspaper's investigation on Wednesday, Google has been supporting Israel's Defence Ministry and military with artificial intelligence tools since the onset of its attacks on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, even as its employees protested the Nimbus cloud computing contract.

The company documents reveal Google expedited access to its Vertex AI service for the Israeli Defence Ministry. Internal communications show Google employees were concerned about losing potential contracts to competitors like Amazon if they did not quickly provide AI technology access.

A November 2023 document showed a Google employee thanking a colleague for facilitating the Defence Ministry's request. Additional documents from the spring and summer of 2024 indicated ongoing efforts to provide the Israeli military with expanded AI technology access.

Notably, documents from November 2024 show the Israeli military is still requesting Google's latest AI technologies, including access to the company's Gemini AI platform, for processing texts and voices, even a year after the extensive bombardment of Gaza.

The newspaper noted that while documents demonstrated continued AI support, they did not specify exactly how the Israeli Defence Ministry planned to utilise Google's technologies or their precise impact on military attacks.

Google has not publicly commented on these revelations, though Israel has previous records of collaborating with big-tech companies to intensify its oppression of Palestinians.