Google and National Security

Google and China

• Google executives wanted a relationship and further cooperation with China, saying it was a “wonderful, innovative market.” Google Sundar Pichai said Google needed to “think hard” about whether it would continue to work in China and look at the “long term.” Jeff Dean, head of Google AI, hoped to promote further exchange and cooperation with China. Despite saying Google needed to “think hard” about their presence in China, Pichai praised the “wonderful, innovative market” in China. Pichai used the “wonderful, innovative market” excuse to defend their work on a censored search engine for the Chinese government. Pichai said Google wanted to “learn what it would look like if Google was in China.”
• Google partnered with China’s leading AI research institution, even though it also conducted AI research for China’s military. The university Google partnered with, Tsinghua University, had received $14.53 million from China’s Science and Technology Committee of China’s Central Military Commission. The funding was intended to be spent on research on a project aimed at advancing the country’s military AI capabilities and developing AI for human/machine combat training. Google had also partnered with another Chinese university in Shanghai to research AI. In 2015, Google hosted nearly 100 Huawei engineers in Mountain View and gave them their own dedicated lab to help them produce better phones.