Google has made one of the most substantive changes to its AI principles since first publishing them in 2018. In a change spotted by The Washington Post, the search giant edited the document to remove pledges it had made promising it would not "design or deploy" AI tools for use in weapons or surveillance technology.

Google changed its public AI policies to remove assertions it would not develop AI applied to surveillance or weapons.

Google removed a pledge to not build AI for weapons or surveillance from its website this week. The change was first spotted by Bloomberg. The company appears to have updated its public AI principles page,

Google’s updated AI ethics policy removes its promise that it won’t use the technology to pursue weapons and surveillance.