Google Deploys AI Agents to Help Pentagon Automate Jobs

Google is reportedly rolling out artificial intelligence (AI) agents to help the Pentagon automate its workforce.

The tech giant’s Gemini AI agents, which can carry out tasks independently on behalf of a user as directed, will initially operate on unclassified networks, Emil Michael, the under secretary of defense for research and engineering, told Bloomberg News Tuesday (March 10).

“We’re starting with unclassified because that’s where most of the users are, and then we’ll get to classified and top secret,” Michael said, adding that discussions with Google over using the agents on the classified cloud are taking place. “I have high confidence they’re going to be a great partner on all networks.”

The report noted that the military’s growing AI use is generating controversy at many top U.S. artificial intelligence companies. For example, OpenAI’s robotics lead stepped down over the weekend due to that company’s agreement with the Pentagon.

“This wasn’t an easy call. AI has an important role in national security,” Caitlin Kalinowski wrote in a post on the X platform. “But surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got. This was about principle, not people.”

During the U.S. war on Iran, the military turned to AI to help identify targets and speed processes, leading to a bombing campaign of record intensity, the report said.

Meanwhile, the military’s partnerships with Google and OpenAI has triggered a feud with Anthropic, which had pushed for assurances that its technology would not be used for domestic surveillance and in fully autonomous weapons.

The Pentagon responded by designating Anthropic a supply chain risk, a label normally reserved for companies based in adversarial countries.

Anthropic sued the government earlier this week, arguing the supply chain risk designation violates its rights to free speech and due process. The startup is asking a federal judge to reverse the designation and prohibit the federal government from enforcing it.

“The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech,” the company said in its lawsuit.

Michael, a former Uber executive who led negotiations with Anthropic, told Bloomberg the matter wouldn’t be settled through the courts and that the Pentagon was now “moving on.”