Not long before Google announced it would end one part of its AI work for the U.S. military, the company's Cloud team was pitching artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to members of the U.S. special operations community, the soldiers very much at the front lines of combat in places like Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Africa. The pitches were part of Google's sales work at the SOFIC convention, which draws special operators from around the world to Tampa, Florida, each May. A document distributed at a May 24 sales presentation touts Google Cloud and associated AI capabilities as useful for some of special operations forces' most important work. Defense One obtained a copy of the document. One sheet describes how the tools can help with sensitive site exploitation, or SSE.

The company has insisted, repeatedly and adamantly, that it the artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities it has provided to the U.S. …