--- title: "Google Staffers Say They’re Being Silenced From Telling the Public the Truth About AI" description: "Employees at Google's DeepMind Labs in London are growing frustrated at the company's legally-binding censorship regime." date: "2026-11-05" modified: "2026-11-05" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins.md" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/google-deepmind-workers-silenced-censorship-ai" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Google" --- # Google Staffers Say They’re Being Silenced From Telling the Public the Truth About AI ![Google’s logo on the office building in Cambridge, MA, USA.]() *Shutterstock* Workers at one of the most advanced AI labs on the planet say they have important information to share — but their employer is preventing them from speaking out. New reporting [by the *Washington Post*]() revealed a growing divide between workers and management at Google's DeepMind lab in London, where employees are gagged from letting the public know about their concerns due to a sweeping non-disparagement agreement. Non-disparagement agreements are a kind of legal corporate censorship, by which companies can ensure workers aren't able to disclose info the company deems to be negative or critical. At the DeepMind labs, it appears to be having its intended effect, scaring workers who say they'd like to be able to keep the public involved as the technology progresses. "This technology is just really consequential and it's also changing really fast," one anonymous DeepMind staffer told *WaPo*. "The public wants to know and deserves to know and often this is the only way that people find out about the harms and potential harms that are happening." Two of the lab's staffers told the paper of a discussion group organized by their fellow workers to discuss the implications of the non-disparagement clause, which many signed as a condition for employment. Dozens of employees took part, some of them openly criticizing it with references to the dystopian surveillance state featured in George Orwell's "1984." Though questions are swirling over whether [Google's top brass]() would ever invoke the clause to go after staff — or if Google even could, [legally speaking]() — workers say the agreements go too far regardless. As one DeepMind staffer told *WaPo*, even "if it's not enforceable," the attempted gag order speaks for itself: "the reason is to basically intimidate people." **More on Google:** *[Google Announces It's Shutting Off Search Engine Access for Schools That Ban AI]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]() ## More - [OpenAI Insiders Say They’re Being Silenced About Danger]() - [Google Is Allegedly Paying Top AI Researchers to Just Sit Around and Not Work for the Competition]() - [Google’s Apparently Building an AI That Tells You How to Live Your Life]() - [Google Staffers Terrified of ICE After Attempt to Force Entry Into Company Building]() - [Internal Google Document Reveals That Its HR AI Has Been Throwing Résumés From Qualified Applicants Straight Into the Trash]() - [Google’s AI Is Scraping Even Sites That Ask to Be Ignored]() - [Top Google Scientist Says We Need to Emphasize Humanity While Developing AI]() - [Google Has Deep Ties to AI Startup Accused to Causing Teen Suicide]()