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Google executives told their employees at a company-wide meeting last week that they were interested in a Pentagon contract for cloud computing, and that working for the military wasn’t necessarily at odds with the company. principles It was created by the company for how to use artificial intelligence technology.

Google resumes contract after three years workers’ revolt company to stop working on a Pentagon program that uses artificial intelligence and create new directives Against the use of AI for weapons or surveillance.

Follow-up potentially leads to another conflict between company leaders and employees. Google’s cloud unit prioritized bid preparation for a Pentagon contract, New York Times He announced this month by pulling engineers from other projects to focus on creating a winning bid.

In a rush to resume the contract, Google said it would not bid or bid on a major cloud computing contract with the Department of Defense, known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, in 2018. JEDI, because the business contradicts the principles of artificial intelligence.

The JEDI cloud computing contract was estimated to be worth $10 billion over 10 years, and given to Microsoft in 2019. But facing Legal challenges from Amazon, the Pentagon terminated the contract In July, it announced a new plan to acquire cloud computing technology. The new version of the contract, known as Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability, will split the business between multiple companies.

The segmented nature of the contract allows Google to work on parts of the Pentagon cloud without violating the gun ban, Google executives told employees at a video conference meeting recorded by The Times on Thursday.

The exact scope of the study is still unclear, as the government has not submitted a formal request for proposals. While not invited for the proposal, Google has said it’s interested.

Inside a blog post Released the same day as the meeting, Thomas Kurian, who heads the company’s cloud unit, wrote: “If we are invited to be part of the JWCC contract, we will certainly bid.”

At the meeting, Mr. Kurian said there are many areas where Google’s talent and expertise can be applied “without contradicting Google’s artificial intelligence principles”.

“We have governance processes that provide guidance and oversight on what AI products we will deliver and which specific AI projects we will pursue, and we will follow those governance processes,” he said.

Mr. Kurian’s previous statements CNBCwas in response to an employee’s question about Google’s involvement with the Pentagon contract and The Times’ news about that contract.

“We understand that not every Google employee will agree with this decision, but we believe that Google Cloud can do this and that work should seek to serve government where it meets Google’s AI principles and our company’s values,” Kurian said. said.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, reiterated his words. “I think we are strongly committed to working with government in a way that is consistent with our AI principles,” said Mr Pichai.

A Google spokesperson declined to comment.