As Zach Vorhies reported in our recent "Zach-Adams Effect" episode on Decentralize.TV, Alex Turner and other top researchers resigned from Google DeepMind after discovering the company had sold its AI infrastructure to the U.S. military with no restrictions against killer robots or mass spying. This wasn't a leak or a rumor -- it was the culmination of a years-long betrayal of every ethical promise Google ever made. [1] [2]

The staff at DeepMind's London office voted overwhelmingly to unionize, with 98 percent of members in favor, citing concerns that their AI technology was being used by the U.S. and Israeli militaries. [1] A former Palestinian engineer was fired after distributing flyers criticizing Google's military AI contracts, and he's now suing for unfair dismissal. [3] This proves that Google's "don't be evil" motto was always a lie. Corporate acquisitions come with lawyers who strip away ethical pledges faster than you can say "shareholder value."

While America's tech giants cozy up to the Pentagon, China is quietly winning the AI race with breakthrough innovations that improve efficiency and allow Chinese AI companies to serve top-tier models at a fraction of the cost of U.S. models. As I've reported, China's release of world-class AI models like Alibaba's Qwen for free represents a strategic move to democratize machine intelligence for everyone, effectively undercutting the subscription revenue model of U.S. frontier AI labs.

The U.S. government's likely response -- banning Chinese models and building a "Great American Firewall" -- will bifurcate the internet and destroy globalism. The Biden-era push for new export restrictions on advanced AI software is now continuing under Trump, with talks about AI guardrails during the Trump-Xi meeting. [4] [5] But a firewall only hurts Americans by blocking U.S. users from accessing the world's best open source models.

I urge you to download open-source models now while you still can, because the digital walls are going up fast. As one analysis notes, "countries with the most advanced robot workforce... will reshape global supply chains." [6]

Vorhies predicts the U.S. military will eventually nationalize frontier labs like Anthropic and OpenAI into a Manhattan Project-like effort. Why? Because they consider AI too powerful and dangerous to be left in private hands. Look at what's already happening: Google has inked a deal to provide the Pentagon with its Gemini AI for classified use, despite internal protests. [7] The Pentagon has finalized agreements with Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, Amazon, and others to deploy AI in classified settings, calling it an "AI-first fighting force." [8] [9]