Google on Tuesday said it is no longer building custom AI or machine learning tools that help oil and gas companies extract fossil fuels, breaking with Amazon and Microsoft in a big win for environmental groups.
Google said in a statement to Forbes it will no longer "build custom A.I./ML algorithms to facilitate upstream extraction in the oil and gas industry," meaning its data crunching technology won't be used to speed up the process of finding oil deposits or predict where companies will most likely find crude oil.
Google will honor existing contracts, but did not specify which companies those contracts are with.
Oil and gas companies will still be able to use Google's cloud computing platform to run their IT operations or store data, the company said.
The move comes after Greenpeace published a report Tuesday detailing how Google, Microsoft and Amazon sell their technology to oil and gas companies to help them speed up fossil fuel extraction.
In a blog post, Microsoft did not make the same commitment as Google, but pointed to the company's efforts to become "carbon negative" by 2030.
Amazon declined to comment on the report and pointed to its website, which says "the energy industry should have access to the same technologies as other industries" because it wants to "help them accelerate development of renewable energy businesses."
CRUCIAL QUOTE"While Google still has legacy contracts with oil and gas firms that we hope they will terminate, we welcome Google's move to no longer create custom solutions for upstream oil and gas extraction," Liz Jardim, Greenpeace USA Senior Climate Campaigner, said in a statement to Forbes. "We hope Microsoft and Amazon will quickly follow with commitments to end AI partnerships with oil and gas firms, as these contracts contradict their stated climate goals and accelerate the climate crisis."
BIG NUMBERIn 2019, Google said its revenue from oil and gas companies was roughly $65 million, which accounts for less than 1% of total Google Cloud revenues.
News pegGoogle, Microsoft and Amazon have in recent months played up their climate change commitments responding to internal protests and pressure from outside environmental groups. Though tech has often appeared ahead of the curve compared to other industries with splashy announcements to offset carbon emissions, Greenpeace and other activists have frequently assailed the industry for continuing to do business with fossil fuel companies. "Microsoft's contract with ExxonMobil XOM alone could lead to emissions greater than 20% of Microsoft's annual carbon footprint," the Greenpeace report says.
KEY BACKGROUNDThis isn't the first time Google has ended a business relationship with a controversial client. After intense media scrutiny and legions of protests from its own employees, Google decided not renew a contract with the Pentagon in 2018 for Project Maven, a program that used Google's AI to make military drones more accurate.
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