According to Bloomberg, Google announced the deployment of its Gemini AI agent to over 3 million civilian and military personnel at the U.S. Department of Defense. Emil Michael, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, stated that the tools provided by Google will initially be used on unclassified networks, and plans to expand them to classified and top-secret systems are still under discussion.
The first eight AI agents launched are primarily used to automate administrative tasks, supporting tasks such as compiling meeting minutes, preparing budgets, and reviewing whether action plans align with the U.S. National Defense Strategy. Google Vice President Jim Kelly stated in a blog post on Tuesday that U.S. Department of Defense personnel can also create custom AI agents using natural language.
Since last December, approximately 1.2 million Pentagon employees have completed non-classified tasks through Google’s AI chatbot available via the GenAI.mil portal. During this period, staff submitted approximately 40 million different prompts and uploaded over 4 million documents.
However, the training progress is significantly lagging behind actual usage. Since December, only 26,000 people have completed AI training courses. Looking ahead, training sessions are fully booked, and more and more employees are joining the ranks of AI tool users.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Defense is also rapidly expanding its collaborations with AI companies. This follows a conflict between the Department of Defense and Anthropic, which refused to remove security restrictions on domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons from its technology. The Department of Defense subsequently designated Anthropic as a “supply chain risk,” while Anthropic stated it would challenge this decision through litigation.
This incident also sparked controversy within tech companies. Approximately 900 Google employees and 100 OpenAI employees signed an open letter urging the company to maintain these security restrictions. Google also quietly revised its “AI Principles” concerning these uses in early February.
Following tensions with Anthropic, the U.S. Department of Defense has partnered with OpenAI and xAI to deploy AI technology in restricted networks.
According to reports, Google’s collaboration with the Pentagon sparked strong internal backlash in 2018. At the time, thousands of employees protested “Project Maven,” a project that uses AI to analyze drone video footage. Google ultimately did not renew the contract, but in recent years has gradually relaxed restrictions on its cooperation with military projects.
