Google director resigns, says 'management has lost its moral compass'

A Google director has resigned, citing the company's work with the US Department of Defence and management's decision to quietly abandon its environmental conservation goals in favour of pushing AI.

René Mayrhofer, a director for Android platform security, shared a note titled "Google Management Has Lost Its Moral Compass" on his website, where he explained the reasons behind his resignation.

Why he joined Google

Mayrhofer said joining Google in 2017 was an opportunity he could not refuse. "Getting the chance to lead on the inside... was an incredible chance," he said in his open letter, dated 18 May and published online last week.

He wrote that Android was one of the most exciting technology projects in the world and that Google at the time appeared committed to environmental goals and ethical technology development.

"Google was the place to be to getting things done on a global scale. The culture was transparent and open to diverse discourse…" recalled the Google senior employee, who has spent nine years at the company.

Google's culture was different then

Mayrhofer said Google once had a culture where employees could challenge leadership decisions and influence company policies.

He pointed to the company's decision to cancel Pentagon-related contracts after employee opposition and cited Google's 2018 AI principles, which ruled out certain military and surveillance applications.

"Don't Be Evil wasn't just a slogan... it was a north star for teams making hard calls," Mayrhofer said.

What changed

According to Mayrhofer, Google had moved away from many of the values that initially attracted him to the company.

He alleged that the company had quietly stepped back from its carbon-neutral ambitions because of the energy demands associated with AI systems.

"Google management has quietly abandoned its goals to become carbon-neutral because of the AI model energy usage," he wrote.

"Worse, Google management is now signing deals with the US Ministry of War—where 'any lawful purpose' by the current US government has already been repeatedly demonstrated to be in violation of international laws."

On deals with Pentagon

In late April, Google announced a deal with the US Department of Defence to provide its AI technology for classified government work, including military planning and intelligence operations.

Mayrhofer said a major reason behind his resignation was Google's work with the US Department of Defence.

"With my moral and ethical principles, I cannot—explicitly or implicitly, directly or transitively—support the current and ongoing actions of the 'Maximum lethality, not tepid legality' US Ministry of War. Given Google's top-level management direction and recent doubling-down, this unfortunately leaves me with the only choice to resign," he said.

Mayrhofer will remain at Google until 31 August 2026 to complete his notice period and help hand over ongoing projects. After leaving, he plans to continue working on privacy, encryption, digital identity, operating system security and related research areas.