- US launches GenAI.mil, giving three million DoD personnel access to Gemini for the government
- Experts warn that rapid injection risks could allow espionage if accounts or workstations are compromised
- History of Google employee protests over military projects raises questions about internal reaction
The US military is keeping Google’s Gemini. Earlier this week, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hesgeth posted a new video on X, announcing GenAI.mil, a platform that “puts the world’s most powerful frontier AI models directly into the hands of every American warfighter.”
The platform will be available to approximately three million U.S. Department of Defense (or, as the current administration calls it, the War Department) employees, including military and civilian personnel, all of whom will receive free training on how to use the tool.
The platform runs on Google’s Gemini for Government, a specialized enterprise AI platform and service designed specifically for US federal government agencies.
Google employees against war
In theory, that means the models are more secure, compliant, and government-ready compared to free-to-use commercial alternatives. However, whether that is actually the case remains to be seen.
In his writing, cyber news maintains that a lot could go wrong here. Despite everyone’s best efforts, current AI models are still susceptible to rapid injection attacks, meaning that the country’s adversaries, such as Russia, China, North Korea or Iran, could gain another avenue for data theft and cyberespionage.
“Any compromised user workstation or common access card account now comes with a powerful AI console that can access internal context through integrations or provide a convenient way to summarize or transform stolen data,” Joshua Copeland, a cybersecurity expert at Tulane University, told the publication.
At the same time, the silence of Google employees is telling. Over the years, employees protested several times over the company’s involvement for military or defense purposes.
In 2018, they protested Project Maven, an artificial intelligence project to analyze drone images. Thousands of employees signed a letter objecting to Google technology being used for war, while several employees resigned. Google ultimately decided not to renew the contract.
Between 2021 and 2023, there was a $1.2 billion cloud and AI contract with the Israeli government and military, Project Nimbus. Google employees protested internally and publicly, arguing that the technology could be used for surveillance, military operations or human rights abuses. Some were disciplined or fired after activism escalated.
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