Big Tech firms march to the beat of Pentagon, CIA despite dissension

Mountain View, Calif., home of Google, is joining other tech centers in pondering new taxes based on employer headcounts -- levies that could jolt Apple and Google -- but if voters endorse the plans, a fresh wave of such measures may roll toward other corporate coffers. (Dreamstime/TNS)

WASHINGTON: A funny thing has happened to Google and Amazon on their path toward high-tech success: They have become crucial cogs in the US national security establishment. 

Both companies are expanding teams of employees with security clearances to work on projects that include deploying artificial intelligence and building digital “clouds” to offering law enforcement facial recognition tools that can even read the mood of people caught on camera.