Google expedited access to its artificial intelligence tools, Vertex and Gemini, for Israel following the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, according to a report published by The Washington Post on Tuesday.

The report highlights that Google provided direct support to Israel’s Defense Ministry and the IDF, even as the company publicly sought to distance itself from Israel’s national security operations. This followed employee protests over Google’s multibillion-dollar Nimbus cloud computing contract with the Israeli government.

Internal documents obtained by The Washington Post reveal that a Google staff member warned the company that Israel might turn to Amazon, a competitor in the cloud services market, if Google failed to quickly increase access to its AI capabilities. Amazon also works with the Israeli government under the Nimbus contract.

Google has faced significant internal backlash over its involvement with Nimbus, firing over 50 employees who protested the contract. Despite criticism, Google has maintained that the contract does not involve “highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.”

The documents reviewed by The Washington Post do not clarify how Israel’s military utilized Google’s AI tools. These tools can perform a variety of tasks, including automating administrative processes that are not directly connected to front-line operations.

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