Google DeepMind Staff Push to Scrap Lifetime Non-Disparagement Clauses That They Say Keep Them From Warning About AI Risks
Employees at Google DeepMind are pressing executives to drop non-disparagement clauses that apply for life, arguing they need to be free to tell the public about AI risks, The Washington Post reported on November 3. Google says it does not enforce the clause against former employees and has removed it from new hires' contracts; staff want it removed from existing ones too.
The dispute inside Google DeepMind is about who gets to warn the public when people building frontier AI think something is wrong. Workers in Google's AI division are pushing executives to release them from non-disparagement agreements, arguing they must be free to tell the public about the risks of the technology they help build, The Washington Post reported on November 3, citing people inside the company.
What staff object to#
Employment contracts for Google DeepMind staff based in London include a non-disparagement clause that applies for life, including after they leave, according to the Post's report as summarized by Seoul Economic Daily. Dozens of employees have raised the issue on the company's internal messaging platform, some likening it to George Orwell's "1984".
The dispute grew after a former Google DeepMind employee told the BBC last month that she would disregard her agreement to speak out against Google's development of AI for military use, prompting colleagues to check their own contracts. One employee said that if the clause cannot be enforced, it exists only to intimidate and could push staff toward self-censorship.
Google's response#
Google says it does not apply the clause to former employees, has always encouraged open discussion about safety and responsibility, and removed the post-departure obligation when it recently revised contract terms for new hires. Current employees want it removed from existing contracts as well.
Whistleblower protection for AI workers is already a policy issue in the US: Senator Cantwell's frontier AI framework includes it, and California's SB 53, which set transparency and whistleblower protections for large AI developers, is the law OpenAI has asked Sacramento to extend.
Limits#
- The Post's account relies on unnamed people inside the company. We could read only the opening of the Post's article; the details here come from Seoul Economic Daily's summary of it.
- We have not seen the contract language, and it is unclear whether the lifetime clause applies to staff outside London.
- We do not know how many employees have signed the clause or whether Google will change existing contracts.