The author left Google DeepMind after discovering the company's cloud services were being used by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which the author believed facilitated unethical actions, including the killing of citizens by federal agents. This realization spurred a campaign to pressure Google to cease serving such agencies.

The author's efforts to prevent Google from signing an unethical military AI deal and to uphold AI ethics commitments, particularly against "killer robots" and mass surveillance, were largely unsuccessful. Despite approaching respected AI researchers like Stuart Russell and influential Google figures such as Jeff Dean (Chief Scientist and co-lead of Google's Gemini AI project), their pleas to maintain ethical stances under pressure were met with inaction or eventual compromise.

Even a detailed proposal for contract language and oversight mechanisms, intended as a principled counteroffer to the Pentagon, was ignored by senior management. Ultimately, Google signed a deal with the military that lacked restrictions against killer robots or mass AI spying. Faced with this outcome and unable to reconcile it with his conscience, the author resigned from Google.