Google has quietly deleted its pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance, a promise that had been in place since 2018.

Google updated its artificial intelligence principles on Tuesday to remove commitments around not using the technology in ways “that cause or are likely to cause overall harm.” A scrubbed section of the revised AI ethics guidelines previously committed Google to not designing or deploying AI for use in surveillance,

Google's parent company lifting a longstanding ban on artificial intelligence (AI) being used for developing weapons and surveillance tools is "incredibly concerning", a leading human rights group has said.

Google has removed its pledge not to use artificial intelligence for weapons development and surveillance, but its executive said will base AI threats on its continued research.

Google has made one of the most substantive changes to its AI principles since first publishing them in 2018. In a change spotted by The Washington Post, the search giant edited the document to remove pledges it had made promising it would not "design or deploy" AI tools for use in weapons or surveillance technology.

In an update to its AI principles, Google pointedly omits an earlier ban on developing AI weapons or surveillance technology.