Employees at several major technology companies, including Google and OpenAI, are circulating open letters calling for stricter limits on military and government use of artificial intelligence. The employee actions, which gained momentum in early March 2026, followed U.S. military strikes in Iran and a Department of Defense decision to designate the AI company Anthropic a “supply chain risk.”
One open letter, titled “We Will Not Be Divided,” had gathered nearly 900 signatures by Monday, March 2, including approximately 800 from Google employees and nearly 100 from OpenAI staff. The letter addresses the Pentagon’s action against Anthropic, stating it aims to “create shared understanding and solidarity in the face of this pressure from the Department of Defense.” The letter further claims that pressure is being applied to individual companies to prevent a unified stance within the industry.
The U.S. government has not publicly detailed its reasoning for designating Anthropic a “supply chain risk.” The action occurred shortly before the U.S. conducted military operations in Iran, which officials stated were intended to address potential threats from the country’s weapons programs.
In a separate statement, the activist group No Tech For Apartheid called on Amazon, Google, and Microsoft to reject Pentagon contract terms that could facilitate certain AI applications. The group urged the companies to provide more transparency regarding their work with government agencies like the Department of Homeland Security. The statement specifically mentioned reports of Google’s negotiations with the Pentagon to deploy its Gemini AI model for classified purposes.
Another letter signed by hundreds of technology workers from companies such as OpenAI, Salesforce, and IBM directly supported Anthropic. It called on the Department of Defense (DoD) to withdraw the “supply chain risk” designation and asked Congress to review whether the use of such authorities against a U.S. company is appropriate.
The recent employee activism reflects ongoing discussions within Google about its government contracts. According to The New York Times, over 100 Google employees signed an internal letter last week expressing concern over the company’s work with the DoD and asking leadership to establish clear limitations on AI use, similar to those publicly stated by Anthropic.
In a post on the social media platform X, Google’s Chief Scientist, Jeff Dean, commented on the topic, stating that “mass surveillance violates the Fourth Amendment and has a chilling effect on freedom of expression.”
This is not the first time Google has faced internal opposition over military contracts. In 2018, thousands of employees protested Project Maven, a Pentagon program that used AI to analyze drone imagery. In response, Google allowed the contract to expire and published a set of “AI Principles.”
More recently, in 2024, the company terminated more than 50 employees following protests over Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud computing contract with the Israeli government. At the time, Google executives maintained that the contract did not violate the company’s AI Principles.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has not issued a public statement regarding the recent employee letters.
