English below.

Otvoreno pismo

Krajem jula u Sarajevu će se održati međunarodna ljetna škola u organizaciji Google DeepMinda u partnerstvu sa, između ostalih, Univerzitetom u Sarajevu. Jedan od spozora škole je BH Telecom. S obzirom da Google svojom tehnologijom podržava genocid u Gazi mi kao građani i građanke BiH želimo iskazati svoje protivljenje i javno pozvati sve firme, nevladine organizacije,  pojedince i javne institucije da se povuku iz organizacije i učešća u ovom događaju. 

Već nekoliko godina Google je organizacija koja se zbog svoje saradnje sa aprathejdnim izraelskim režimom kroz projekat Nimbus nalazi na listi za bojkot BDS pokreta: “U maju 2021, dok je izraelska vojska bombardovala kuće, bolnice i škole u Gazi i prijetila da protjera palestinske porodice iz okupiranog Jerusalema, Amazon Web Servisi i Google Cloud su potpisali ugovor u vrijednosti od 1,22 milijardi za pružanje cloud, odnosno oblak tehologije izraelskoj vladi i vojsci. Tehnološki podržavajući izraelski aparthejd, Amazon i Google su direktno umiješani u cjelokupni izraelski sistem ugnjetavanja, ukljućujući i trenutni genocid u Gazi”.

Direktna umješanost Googla i u genocid je postala još jasnija i vidljivija nakon pisanja izraelskog nezavisnog online časopisa +972  početkom aprila 2024. godine u kojem je otkriveno kako Izrael koristi program baziran na umjetnoj inteligenciji pod nazivom “Lavander” kako bi nadzirao i prikupljao podatke o ljudima u Gazi i označio ih kao potencijalne “mete” napada, među kojima su novinari, medicinski radnici i humanitarci. Ciljani napadi na ove ljude se često dešavaju dok borave u svojim domovima okruženi porodicom i djecom. Projekat Lavander ne bi bio moguć bez Googlove tehnologije kroz projekat Nimbus. 

Iako kompanija Google insistira da se njihova saradnja s izraelskom vladom najviše tiče civilnih poslova, časopis Time je krajem aprila 2024. godine objavio da je došao u posjed dokumentacije koja dokazuje da je od početka genocida u Gazi Google čak i produbio svoju saradnju s Ministarstvom odbrane Izraela omogućavajući im sopstvenu zonu (“landing zone”) u Google Cloudu, sigurnu ulaznu tačku u kompjutersku infrastrukturu Googla, koja dozvoljava ministarstvu da pohranjuje i obrađuje podatke i pristupa Google servisima umjetne inteligencije.

U maju 2024. godine oko 200 uposlenika Google DeepMinda, Googlovog odjela za umjetnu inteligenciju, je potpisalo pismo koje je pozvalo ovu kompaniju da odustane od svojih ugovora s vojnim organizacijama tako ukazujući da su neki od uposlenika ovog Google odjela zabrinuti da se tehnologija koju oni razvijaju koristi u ratne svrhe. Google nije ispunio zahtjeve ovih oko 5% radnika Google DeepMinda, koji su zabrinuti da svojim radom učestvuju u i doprinose ratnim zločinima. Časopis Time je u augustu 2024. godine ukazao i na to da iako je Google prilikom kupovine DeepMinda 2014. godine obećao da njihova tehnologija umjetne inteligencije neće nikada biti korištena za potrebe vojske i nadzora, ta obećanja su prekršena tokom 2023. godine prilikom spajanja DeepMinda sa drugim Google timom za umjetnu inteligenciju: “Kao rezultat, DeepMind tehnologija je upakovana u Google Cloud software i prodata vojskama i vladama, uključujući Izrael i njegovo Ministarstvo odbrane”.

Stoga, bilo kakvo zajedničko organizovanje sa Googlom i Google DeepMindom ili sponzorisanje takvih događaja, uključujući i gore pomenutu ljetnu školu, ako ništa drugo znače indirektno pružanje podrške genocidu koji izraelske vlasti sprovode nad stanovnicima Gaze. Umjesto učesća u organizaciji ove ljetne škole pozivamo Univerzitet u Sarajevu, BH Telecom, te druge  bosanskohercegovačke kompanije, organizacije i pojedince koji su povezani s ovim događajem, da se priključe pozivima BDS pokreta kao i kampanji No Tech For Apartheid (Ne tehnologiji za aparthejd) koju vode uposlenici Google i Amazona te tako izvrše pritisak na Google da odustane od pomaganja izraelskom režimu u sprovođenju genocida i aparthejda nad palestinskim narodom. 

Napominjemo, da se u julu 2025. godine, mjesecu kada je ova ljetna škola planirana, obilježava 30 godina od genocida u Srebrenici. Srebrenica nas opominje da je moralna i etička odgovornost svih da se svim snagama moramo zalagati da se genocid više nikad i nikom ne dogodi. 

ENGLISH

An open letter

At the end of July, an international summer school will be held in Sarajevo organized by Google DeepMind in partnership with, among others, the University of Sarajevo. One of the sponsors of the school is BH Telecom. Given that Google supports the genocide in Gaza with its technology, we as citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina want to express our opposition and publicly call on all companies, non-governmental organizations, individuals and public institutions to withdraw from the organization and participation in this event.

For several years now, Google has been an organization that, due to its cooperation with the apartheid Israeli regime through the Nimbus project, has been on the boycott list of the BDS movement: "In May 2021, while the Israeli army bombed houses, hospitals and schools in Gaza and threatened to expel Palestinian families from occupied Jerusalem, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud signed a contract worth 1.22 billion to provide cloud technology to the Israeli government and army. Technologically supporting the Israeli apartheid, Amazon and Google are directly involved in the entire Israeli system of oppression, including the current genocide in Gaza".

Google's direct involvement in the genocide became even clearer and more visible after the writing of the Israeli independent online magazine +972 in early April 2024, in which it was revealed that Israel uses a program based on artificial intelligence called "Lavander" to monitor and collect data on people in Gaza and mark them as potential "targets" of attacks, among them journalists, medical workers and humanitarians. Targeted attacks on these people often happen while they are staying in their homes surrounded by family and children. The Lavander project would not be possible without Google technology empowered Nimbus project.

Although the Google company insists that their cooperation with the Israeli government mostly concerns civil affairs, Time magazine announced at the end of April 2024 that it came into possession of documentation that proves that since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza, Google has even deepened its cooperation with the Ministry of Defense of Israel by providing them with their own zone ("landing zone") in Google Cloud, a secure entry point into Google's computer infrastructure, which allows the ministry to store and process data and access Google's artificial intelligence services.

In May 2024, about 200 employees of Google DeepMind, Google's artificial intelligence division, signed a letter calling on the company to drop its contracts with military organizations, indicating that some employees of this Google division are concerned that the technology they develop is being used for war purposes. Google did not meet the demands of these, approximately 5% of Google DeepMind workers, who are concerned that their work is participating in and contributing to war crimes. In August 2024, Time magazine also pointed out that although Google promised during the purchase of DeepMind in 2014 that their artificial intelligence technology would never be used for military and surveillance purposes, these promises were broken in 2023 when DeepMind merged with another Google artificial intelligence team: "As a result, DeepMind technology was packaged into Google Cloud software and sold to armies and governments, including Israel and its Ministry of Defense."

Therefore, any joint organizing with Google and Google DeepMind or sponsoring such events, including the above-mentioned summer school, if nothing else means indirectly supporting the genocide carried out by the Israeli authorities against the residents of Gaza. Instead of participating in the organization of this summer school, we invite the University of Sarajevo, BH Telecom, and other Bosnian companies, organizations and individuals associated with this event to join the calls of the BDS movement as well as the No Tech For Apartheid campaign led by Google and Amazon employees, and thus put pressure on Google to give up helping the Israeli regime in carrying out genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.

Please note that July 2025, the month when this summer school is planned, marks the 30th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica. Srebrenica reminds us that it is everyone's moral and ethical responsibility that we must strive with all our might so that genocide never happens to anyone again.