GoKawiilGoogle is facing a legal claim for unlawfully dismissing an AI research engineer after they raised concerns internally over its complicity in war crimes in Gaza.
The engineer, who worked at Google DeepMind, used internal discussion forums, email and flyers to question the company’s provision of support to military forces involved in genocide. Google provides cloud computing services to Israel’s Ministry of Defence.
The engineer also worked with other colleagues to urge the company to return to its original ban on using AI to develop weapons and surveillance tools. Google abandoned this principle in 2025, and the engineer helped organise a petition signed by several hundred colleagues calling on the company to reverse this decision.
Following these activities, the engineer was invited to meetings with Google’s HR team at which he was given the strong impression that any communication criticising the change to Google’s AI principles, or linking Google UK to the war in Gaza, was actively discouraged.
In October 2025, after further distribution of flyers and posters raising concerns with colleagues, Google dismissed the engineer.
The engineer, who is not sharing their name at this stage, has brought a claim against Google in the English employment tribunals over unfair dismissal, discrimination on grounds of belief, and whistleblowing detriment.
The claim states that the engineer was trying to alert colleagues and management to Google’s failure to comply with a legal obligation – to prevent genocide under international law – and that Google’s dismissal of them was therefore contrary to the legal protection given to whistleblowers.
It highlights that the engineer was discriminated against on the basis of their belief that no one should be complicit in war crimes.
The engineer has told Foxglove: “Google fired me for stating the obvious: our work on AI was sold to facilitate genocide.”
Significant numbers of Google DeepMind employees recently launched a bid for unionisation, as part of efforts to end use of their technology by the Israeli and US militaries.
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