A bipartisan group of dozens of lawmakers led by Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is concerned over Google’s plan to acquire Spirit Airlines data to train its AI models.
A letter from the group, sent to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Spirit CEO Dave Davis, took issue with a proposed $10 million sale of “Spirit Airlines’ internal data to Google for the purpose of training artificial intelligence systems,” which the lawmakers said they believed could violate “the privacy and confidentiality of thousands of current and former Spirit employees.”
The group of 119 lawmakers from both chambers continued the sale is “uncharted territory” as it would involve “approximately 100 million emails, 500 million Microsoft Teams messages, employee records, timecard records, payroll and tax information, and employment contracts.”
“We are concerned that conventional de-identification safeguards may not be sufficient to protect employee privacy in the context of modern artificial intelligence,” the lawmakers wrote, citing a National Institute of Standards and Technology report that stated in certain circumstances, de-identified data could be re-identified with the use of AI.
Google received the letter and had no interest in receiving personal information, according to a source familiar with the matter, adding that any data received will be rigorously de-identified by an independent third party.
“Innovation cannot come at the expense of workers’ privacy, and no employee data should move until real, enforceable safeguards are in place,” Horsford said in a press release Thursday.
A Google spokesperson told The Hill, “As we’ve said from the beginning of the process, we are not looking to buy any personal information from Spirit.”
“The information will either be completely excluded or will be deidentified by an independent third party before Google receives any data. We’re already working constructively with the appointed privacy ombudsman,” the spokesperson continued.
The lawmakers asked Google and Spirit to undertake six steps — such as excluding employee information as much as possible, establishing a de-identification protocol that affected employees agree to and protecting sensitive employee information when it is de-identified.
Worry has increased surrounding the development of AI models at major technology firms such as Google, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Anthropic. Leadership at all four companies were invited last week to the White House, where they agreed to a pledge to self-police AI development.
“Google’s focused on building the right way, with appropriate testing, evaluations, red-teaming, and other safeguards against misuse and misalignment – and releasing models or products only after they’ve been thoroughly reviewed,” Pichai wrote on social media after the pledge was announced.
Google also struck a deal with the Pentagon to provide its AI models for “any lawful governmental purpose,” a Pentagon official, told The Hill in April.
The deal received pushback from the company’s employees who felt that their “proximity to this technology creates a responsibility to highlight and prevent its most unethical and dangerous uses.”
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