Move by employees at Google’s AI arm follows discontent after weapons and surveillance pledge is dropped

Around 300 London-based tech employees of Google’s AI arm, have sought to join the Communication Workers Union in recent weeks, according to three people briefed on the move.

The move to unionise follows growing discontent at Deep Mind after Google dropped a pledge in February not to develop AI technologies that “cause or are likely to cause overall harm”

Three people involved with the unionisation drive said media reports that Google is selling its cloud services and AI technology to the Israeli Ministry of Defence has also caused disquiet