Google to Provide Pentagon with Gemini-powered AI agents

Source: Engadget

Overview

Google is rolling out Gemini‑powered AI agents to the Department of Defense’s more than 3 million civilian and military employees, according to Bloomberg. The agents will initially operate on unclassified networks, with talks underway to expand them to classified and top‑secret systems, according to Emil Michael, the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.

Agent Capabilities

• Pre‑built agents: Eight agents will automate tasks such as summarizing meeting notes, building budgets, and checking proposed actions against the National Defense Strategy.
• Custom agents: Google Vice President Jim Kelly said in a blog post that Defense Department personnel can also create custom agents using natural language.

Adoption and Training

• The AI chatbot, accessible through the Pentagon’s GenAI.mil portal, has been used by 1.2 million Defense Department employees for unclassified work since December.
• Personnel have run 40 million unique prompts and uploaded more than 4 million documents.
• Training has lagged behind adoption: only 26 000 people have completed AI training since December, though future sessions are fully booked, indicating growing participation.

Pentagon AI Partnerships

The expansion follows the Pentagon’s rapid broadening of AI partnerships after a standoff with Anthropic, which refused to remove guardrails against domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons. The Pentagon has since classified Anthropic as a “supply chain risk,” a designation the company plans to contest in court. Approximately 900 Google and 100 OpenAI employees have signed an open letter urging their employers to maintain the same guardrails. Google quietly altered its “AI Principles” regarding these uses in early February.

Google’s History with Defense Work

• The Department of Defense has also struck deals with OpenAI and xAI for restricted networks.
• Google faced internal backlash over Pentagon work in 2018 when thousands of employees protested Project Maven, a program that used AI to analyze drone video feeds. Google did not renew that contract but has since loosened its restrictions on military work.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-to-provide-pentagon-with-gemini-powered-ai-agents-161037444.html?src=rss.