US President Donald Trump agreed on Tuesday to look into claims by billionaire investor and investor Peter Thiel that Google has been infiltrated by Chinese agents to work with the Beijing government.
Thell, who helped set up PayPal and works on the Facebook board, said at the weekend that he had taken a decision to work with the Chinese military, according to Axius News.
Speaking at a conference focusing on nationalism, Thiel said there was a need to ask three questions to Google, the number of foreign intelligence agencies that worked with them in the field of artificial intelligence, and whether the company´s senior management believed it had "been fully compromised by Chinese intelligence, "and why it was" working with the Chinese army and not with the US military, "according to Axius´ report.
He suggested asking these questions on Google "by the FBI or the CIA, I am not quite sure how to put it, I would like to put forward in a strong way."
"He is a great and wonderful man who knows the subject better than anyone else," Trump said. "Trump´s management will take a look."
Google responds
In response to Trump´s suggestion that Google committed a betrayal of its relations with the Chinese government and allegations made by the US president in a series of tweets on Twitter this morning, the company denied it was working with the Chinese military.
"As we said before, we are not working with the Chinese military," Google said in a joint statement with the Independent.
The search giant has been criticized in the past by Trump and US administration officials for its dealings with China.
Defense Secretary Patrick Chanahan told senators at a hearing this year that although Google did not say "no" to work with the Pentagon, "its unwillingness to support the programs of the Department of Defense was clear."
Google´s chief executive, Sundar Peshay, said at the time that he had talked to Trump about investing in the US workforce and emerging technologies, and stressed the company´s continued commitment to working with the US government.
