Rabat – Silicon Valley used to be known for rebels in hoodies building the next big thing from their garages. Now? Some of those same rebels are writing code for the Pentagon.
According to El País, the tech world is undergoing a quiet — yet significant — shift. Companies like OpenAI, Google, and Meta are increasingly collaborating with the US military, developing AI tools not only for consumer use but also for warfare, surveillance, and defense strategy.
Take OpenAI, for example. The same company behind ChatGPT used to have a rule banning military use of its tech. That rule disappeared earlier this year. Not long after, OpenAI signed a $200 million (MAD 1.97 billion) contract with the US Department of Defense.
And it doesn’t stop at software. Executives and engineers from Meta, Palantir, and OpenAI are now part of the US.
Army program called the Executive Innovation Corps, essentially a high-tech brain trust helping the military stay ahead in the digital arms race.
Some see this as a patriotic move, a way for American tech to protect national interests. But not everyone’s convinced.
Inside these companies, employees have pushed back, especially over deals involving AI and global conflicts. At Google and Microsoft, protests have led to disciplinary action and even firings.
Heidy Khlaaf, a safety expert from the AI Now Institute, told El País that tech giants are starting to present themselves as “too strategically important to fail.” That mindset makes it easier to justify risky partnerships, and harder for outsiders to keep track of what’s really going on.
For regular users, it raises tough questions. The same tools we use to chat, search, and navigate our world might now be shaping battlefields. And the line between innovation and militarization is getting blurrier by the day.
