In 2016, UCL awarded an Honorary Fellowship to UCL alumnus Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind. These are supposed to be awarded to individuals who reflect “the values and ethos of UCL”. Yet the Israeli military use Google’s cloud infrastructure and AI technology – developed by DeepMind – to support their genocide in Palestine. The UN describes Alphabet, Google’s parent company, as “central to the Israeli surveillance apparatus and the ongoing Gaza destruction”. Hassabis openly supports the use of DeepMind’s AI in state military applications. Now DeepMind workers are unionising in protest.
These behaviours do NOT represent the values and ethos of our university. So why is UCL still honouring him with a title?
UCL staff, students and alumni – Demand that UCL rescinds Demis Hassabis’ Honorary Fellowship.