In an alarming shift, Google’s parent company has changed longstanding guidelines for its own use of artificial intelligence, saying that it will now allow AI to be used for developing weapons and surveillance tools.

Alphabet’s AI ethics principles were redrawn this week, and now lack the clause that said AI would not be used on applications that were “likely to cause harm.”

The company defended the move, saying that AI applications and principles should be developed to protect “national security” in an evolving global landscape.

“We believe democracies should lead in AI development, guided by core values like freedom, equality, and respect for human rights,” Google said, defending the move in a blogpost.

“And we believe that companies, governments, and organisations sharing these values should work together to create AI that protects people, promotes global growth, and supports national security.”

The post claimed that since AI has evolved so rapidly from a niche laboratory research topic to a mainstream everyday application, its ethics principles should also be updated to reflect its varied applications.

AI has already been used in warfare and for surveillance – facial recognition tools have been used by law enforcement to identify individuals in crowds and for investigations, and the war in Ukraine has opened much of the world’s eyes to the potential for AI’s use in war, with autonomous drones and targeting of militants.

Reports also revealed that the Israeli army was using an AI systems to classify Gazans and determine targets for airstrikes, with little human oversight.

The potential for AI in warfare is no longer an eventuality, it is a current modern reality. Google’s policy change reflects more than just the changing scope of AI, but is a prudent move for any AI company that would like to see the financial benefits of military contracts as nations are already in the midst of an arms race reminiscent of the Cold War.

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Google’s most recent move brings into question the company’s founding motto of ‘Don’t be evil,’ created by Sergei Brin and Larry Page. Since the company restructured under the name Alphabet in 2015, the motto changed to ‘Do the right thing.’

Notably, Google did not renew a contract in 2018 to support the US Pentagon with their AI work, following petitions and resignations by the tech giant’s workers.

More recently, however, Google was accused for firing more than 50 workers allegedly in retaliation for protests against their involvement with the Israeli government’s Project Nimbus, which would use some of Google’s cloud capabilities, condemned by workers for increasing Israel’s ability to surveil Palestinians.

Last year, an international meeting in Austria which featured over a thousand participants urged for the regulation of AI’s use in weapons and warfare, which was characterised as the modern era’s ‘Oppenheimer Moment’ akin the atomic bomb.