Google employees protest role they claim company has in 'AI-powered genocide' in Gaza
SUNNYVALE, Calif. (KGO) -- Following a day of action in the Bay Area, Google employees protested the war in Gaza in front of their offices across the country.
Working at Google may be seen as a dream career for many, but software engineer Emaan Haseem has moral disagreements with the company involving the war in Gaza.
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Now, she and other employees are standing up for what they believe is right -- no matter the cost.
"I would not like to lose my job," Haseem said. "But I think that it is impossible for me to continue coming into work every week without acknowledging and loudly condemning Project Nimbus and any support for the Israeli government."
From New York to Sunnyvale, Googlers are fighting back.
A group of employees even occupied Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian's office.
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They shared letters from fellow workers during a live stream speaking out against the harassment, mistreatment and censorship of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim Googlers.
One read: "I am not proud to work for Google. I am ashamed to work for Google. And the only reason I'm still working for Google is because of my fellow workers at NoTechForApartheid organizing against tech complicit genocide."
Among the organizers demands is a stop to the billion-dollar Google Cloud AI contract with the Israeli government named Project Nimbus.
Haseem says the cloud services from Nimbus include facial recognition, object tracking and other custom technology from Google and Amazon Web Services.
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Employees believe the services from Project Nimbus are fueling the first AI-powered genocide in Gaza.
"We've already had Googlers resign citing that Project Nimbus was the main concern for their poor mental health and was the main reason why they had to leave Google," Haseem said.
Haseem understands why some choose to leave. But she hopes to remain employed, so she and this group can continue to fight so all employees can feel safe once again.
We reached out to Google about the protests but did not receive a response back.
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