WASHINGTON – Google has reached an agreement with the US Defense Department to allow its artificial intelligence systems to be used for classified military work, according to a Pentagon official, a deal that came together as researchers at the company protested against it.
A spokesperson for Alphabet’s Google told Bloomberg News that the company had amended its contract with the Pentagon. While many details of the deal remain unclear, the spokesperson said it included providing the Pentagon with API access, giving the agency the ability to connect directly with the company’s software, but it didn’t entail custom work or model development.
“We believe that providing API access to our commercial models, including on Google infrastructure, with industry-standard practices and terms, represents a responsible approach to supporting national security,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
“We remain committed to the private and public sector consensus that AI should not be used for domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weaponry without appropriate human oversight,” the spokesperson added. The Pentagon official asked not to be named to discuss contractual issues.
The amended contract represents a significant new milestone in Google’s provision of AI to the Pentagon, which has seen several instances of employees protesting the use of the company’s technology for some military uses. The most recent happened on April 27, when hundreds of AI researchers sent a letter to Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai urging him to refuse to make the company’s AI systems available for classified workloads for US defence missions.
“We are Google employees who are deeply concerned about ongoing negotiations between Google and the US Department of Defense,” reads the letter, which was provided to Bloomberg. “As people working on AI, we know that these systems can centralise power and that they do make mistakes.”
Google workers in 2018 also protested the company’s use of its technology for Project Maven, a Pentagon initiative to use AI to analyse drone footage that has become the heart of how America makes war.
The protests prompted the company to pledge not to make weapons and other potentially harmful technologies.
Google said at the time that its work on Project Maven was intended for “non-offensive purposes,” but in the face of protests and concerns that such technology could lead to lethal outcomes, the company decided not to renew its contract for Maven.
The deal also follows a breakdown between the Pentagon and Anthropic earlier in 2026 over the use of AI for military applications. The Pentagon is seeking to eject Anthropic and its Claude AI tool from US defence supply chains and has been casting around for new tech giant AI partners.
The Information previously reported on Google’s deal to provide its AI systems to the Pentagon for classified work “for any lawful government purpose.”
Google also dropped out of a US$100 million (S$127 million) Pentagon prize challenge to create technology for voice-controlled, autonomous drone swarms after it was among the successful submissions. The decision followed an internal ethics review, according to records referencing it that were reviewed by Bloomberg. Google officially cited a lack of “resourcing,” according to the records. BLOOMBERG