Billionaire tech investor calls for probe of Google’s possible ‘treasonous’ ties to China
Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel on Sunday called for the FBI and CIA to investigate whether Chinese intelligence had infiltrated Google, according to a report.
Thiel, who supported Trump in 2016 and Facebook board member, made the comments during a speech at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington. He said the FBI and CIA needed to ask Google three questions to determine if the tech giant had been compromised by Chinese intelligence, Axios reported.
FILE: A Google Home Hub is displayed in New York. (AP)
“Number one: How many foreign intelligence agencies have infiltrated your Manhattan Project for AI (artificial intelligence)?” Thiel reportedly asked. “Number two: Does Google’s senior management consider itself to have been thoroughly infiltrated by Chinese intelligence?”
Thiel then slammed Google for its decision to work with the Chinese military while refusing to renew a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense.
“Number three: Is it because they consider themselves to be so thoroughly infiltrated that they have engaged in the seemingly treasonous decision to work with the Chinese military and not with the US military,” Thiel said.
Google has faced criticism over its work on a censored search engine – “Project Dragonfly” – that would allow it to return to China after leaving in 2010 over human rights concerns. The company dropped the project after members of the company’s privacy team raised complaints.
Other reports said that Google decided not to renew its contract for Project Maven – a controversial military program that uses artificial intelligence to improve drone targeting – which expired earlier this year.
Google did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.
Fox News’ Louis Casiano contributed to this report.