Google DeepMind research engineer Sofia Liguori resigns in protest at Google’s Pentagon and Project Nimbus military AI contracts
Confirmed
Status
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Confirmed
- Our reporting
- High confidence
- Importance
- 3 of 5
- Last verified
- 22 October 2026
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Key facts
- Liguori joined DeepMind in 2023 and worked on routing power through the electrical grid; after the April Pentagon deal she staged a personal sick-out (The Intercept)
- Resignation letter: ‘I no longer believe that our technology will have a net positive impact on society’; ‘Racing to deploy agentic AI in this society and historical moment is a terrible idea, and will definitely be a net evil’
- Her objection is to current military uses, not speculative AI catastrophe (The Intercept)
- Google spokesperson Tom Hewett: Google follows ‘a consistent process for reviewing and entering these contracts’ and has ‘dedicated channels for employees to safely raise any concerns’
- Andreas Kirsch also left DeepMind earlier in October; he had argued that none of the conditions of Google’s 2014 DeepMind acquisition, including a ban on military use, survived: ‘Not one safeguard survived intact’ (Trending Topics)
- Context: Google’s April 2026 agreement lets the Pentagon use its models for ‘any lawful government purpose’, with stated limits on domestic mass surveillance and autonomous weapons without human oversight
What happened
A second DeepMind departure in October over military work, after Alex Turner’s in the summer. The BBC story (124 points on Hacker News) could not be fetched by our tools; details come from The Intercept’s interview and Trending Topics.
Why it matters
Employee dissent at Google over military AI is now producing public resignations from the core research lab, as Google, OpenAI and xAI deepen Pentagon work.
Sources
3 sources from 3 sites. Numbers match the chips in the text.
3 sources: 3 press
Press
- The Intercept: Google DeepMind engineer resigns in protest of Pentagon contracttheintercept.com, press
- Trending Topics: DeepMind researchers quit Google over military AI dealstrendingtopics.eu, press
- BBC: Google staff resign in backlash over its AI contracts with militarybbc.com, press
Changes
- Filed (HN)