Unity’s military deals raise ethical concerns for workers – report

You’re probably familiar with Unity as a popular game engine, but Unity Technologies, the company behind the tool, doesn’t just make money from budding and established game developers. He also works under contract with various entities outside of the game, including the government and, above all, the Ministry of Defense. According to a long Vice report published today, some employees are not involved in all of this work. Some are not even informed that their own efforts are devoted to these contracts.

Imagine that you are just helping to create video games, only to find that your work is turning into war as well.

If you’ve played video games, you’ve probably come across Unity before, as its main product was used to create everything from Cities: horizons To fall guys To Dream Daddy: A Dating Simulator For Dad. The company, founded in 2005, became public on the New York Stock Exchange last year, and is currently valued at $ 33 billion. Earlier this month, Unity bought Parsec, the game streaming platform, for $ 320 million.

Speaking to three former and current Unity employees, all of whom have been granted anonymity for fear of reprisal, Vice learned that a large portion of the company’s contracts relate to artificial intelligence (AI) programming. Much of this is officially conducted by Unity’s “GovTech” department, but since some of the company’s work crosses departments, it means some employees could be working on technology that helps other military initiatives without even know they do.

Vice found several agreements signed with the Ministry of Defense, including two six-figure contracts for “modeling and simulation prototypes” with the US Air Force. Apparently, in a Unity barehanded meeting earlier this year, the company was only able to name one GovTech contract that was not with the Department of Defense.

“It should be very clear when people step into Unity’s military initiative,” one of the ViceAnonymous sources said, echoing an apparent sentiment from across the company.

CEO John Riccitiello (yes, the same guy who ran EA… twice) responded to employees through Unity’s internal Slack and promised all employees a meeting tomorrow.

“Whether or not I work directly for the government team, I hold responsibility for the products they sell. Do you want to use your tools to catch the bad guys? Maybe we shouldn’t be trying to define who the bad guys are, ”a source said. Vice, whose report you can read here.