"AI engineer says Google unfairly sacked him after he protested against work for Israel", 20 May 2026

Google is facing a legal challenge from an AI engineer who claims he was unfairly dismissed after he protested against its work for the Israeli government...

The engineer distributed flyers around Google DeepMind’s London offices, which read “Google provides military AI to forces committing genocide” and asking colleagues: “Is your paycheck worth this?” He also emailed colleagues about Google’s 2025 decision to drop a promise not to pursue weapons that harm people and surveillance violating international norms and urged them to unionise.

...the worker alleges that Google discriminated against his belief that no one should be complicit in war crimes and that by emailing and leafleting colleagues he was acting as a whistleblower. He claims he was laid off in September following meetings with a manager after which Google concluded he had resigned, which he denies.

Google DeepMind disputed his account. A spokesperson said it “does not accurately reflect the facts”...

It is understood that Google’s position is that it would not fire an employee for expressing opinions or engaging in constructive discourse in line with its company policy or treat unionised workers differently...