René Mayrhofer, a senior Android security official, has quit Google after the tech giant signed a contract giving the US Department of Defense access to its artificial intelligence systems for classified military work.
A senior has resigned in protest over the company’s decision to supply artificial intelligence technology to the US military, saying the move made his departure “unavoidable” and that leadership had abandoned the ethical principles that once defined the company.
René Mayrhofer, director for, confirmed to Business Insider that he had circulated a farewell letter to colleagues on 18 May, in which he accused Google’s top leadership of quietly reversing its commitments on both climate and warfare, and warned that the Pentagon deal could ultimately be used against European citizens.
Why a Google director walked away from one of tech’s most coveted jobs
Mayrhofer, who joined Google in 2017 and holds a tenured academic position at Johannes Kepler University Linz in Austria, said the company he accepted a job offer from no longer resembles the one he works for today.
“Google management has quietly abandoned the goals to become carbon-neutral because of the AI model energy usage,” he wrote in the note, which he later published on his personal blog. “Worse, the current Google management is now signing deals with the US Ministry of War, where ‘any lawful purpose’ by the current US government has already been repeatedly demonstrated to be in violation of international laws.”
He told Business Insider he “can’t/won’t personally align with the overall company direction” of working with the US military, while being careful to note there are “very good people left” on his team.
Pentagon AI contract that triggered the resignation
Google announced in late April that it had signed an agreement with the US Department of Defense to provide AI technology for classified operations, including military planning and intelligence gathering, according to Business Insider‘s earlier reporting. The deal drew immediate criticism from within the workforce, with some employees having previously lobbied leadership not to proceed.
A Google spokesperson told Business Insider the company was “proud” to be part of a consortium of AI laboratories providing services “in support of national security,” adding: “We remain committed to the private and public sector consensus that AI should not be used for domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weaponry without appropriate human oversight.”
How Google’s AI ethics principles were quietly dismantled
At the centre of Mayrhofer’s grievances is what he describes as a pattern of decisions made without internal debate or transparency. He pointed to , first drawn up in 2018, which included explicit pledges not to develop weapons or surveillance tools using AI. In February 2025, Google revised those guidelines and removed those restrictions entirely.
“None of this is being debated or communicated within the company,” Mayrhofer wrote, saying that consequential choices are “just being decided by top-level management.”
‘I am a pacifist’: The personal conviction behind the resignation
Mayrhofer was direct about the values driving his decision, describing himself as a longstanding conscientious objector to offensive military engagement.
“I am a pacifist, and have long ago decided that I will not personally work for militaries engaging in offensive warfare,” he wrote. “Proactively harming people is not something that I can or will be involved with.”
He also raised concerns specific to his position as a European academic. Citing a Politico report in which a Belgian university warned staff against collaborating with US institutions, Mayrhofer argued that Google’s open-ended Pentagon contract posed a direct risk to people like him.
“This deal implies that will likely be used directly against me and mine. In this recent environment, I don’t see how I could not resign.”
Mayrhofer is not alone: Dissent grows inside Google
Mayrhofer is not the first Google employee to speak out. Andreas Kirsch, a research scientist at Google DeepMind, told Business Insider in April that he was “incredibly ashamed” of the company’s decision to supply AI for classified work.
Mayrhofer acknowledged his own position afforded him a degree of freedom many colleagues do not have. “I am aware that, as a tenured academic in the EU, I am quite privileged that my decision to leave was only hard because I was balancing the good I could still do within Android security vs. tolerating the military angle, but not being dependent on the financial part of the employment. Many others are not in that situation,” he said.
What happens next: Notice period and a final warning to leadership
Mayrhofer said he would serve his notice period at t but added that he would “immediately disconnect from any work on AI systems that might fall under this deal with the DoW.”
His farewell letter closed with both regret and a direct challenge to the company’s leadership.
“I am quite sad that it had to come to this, and desperately hope Google management re-discovers its moral compass,” he wrote. “Until then, I’ll miss y’all.”