It is now sure to say that the gang is all here with regard to large manufacturers of AI generating models signing dollar reduction agreements with Uncle Sam. Google joined Anthropic and Openai, depositing dubious short -term reduction conditions for government agencies.
In order not to be outdone by the manufacturers of Chatgpt and Claude, who each agreed to sell their services to the government for $ 1 per agency, Google accepted even deeper reduction conditions, presenting its various IA products capable of the government for only $ 0.47 per agency, valid until 2026.
The GOOGLE AI at half bucks agreement is part of the OneGov purchasing strategy of the General Services Administration which aims to rationalize the purchase of products for federal agencies. Agencies that seek to add an AI Google Gemini to their operations, for example, will not need to establish new terms with Google as part of the $ 0.47 agreement. Instead, they simply accept the terms previously negotiated in the name of the entire federal government by the GSA.
And like the other recent transactions on the DIA announced announced by the GSA as part of its ONEGOV markets initiative, Google also expires after a year. Agencies which register for services at reduced prices today and which depend on them have no way of knowing what happens after the end of the reduction period. Google told us that even if it was not sure, a spokesperson saying only that he would explore the options of the end of the reduction period.
As we have pointed out in another ONEGOV story, these offers open up the possibility of a new generation of suppliers locking. Any particular brand of AI could quickly become essential for the workload of an agency before anyone know what the long -term cost is.
This is part of the reason why the previous time on the OneGov with Openai and Anthropic were challenged by the IA company, ask Sage and its founder, the former director of Air Force software and the space force, Nicolas Chaillan.
Ask the protests of Sage’s submission, of which copies have been consulted by The registerargues that discounts could lead to a locking of sellers in violation of the Government Federal Acquisition Regulations, as well as violation of the requirements relating to commercial prices and competition. Ask SAGE, note us, provide an agnostic AI platform for suppliers for government agencies and protests against the offer as an interested party.
Chaillan said The register On a certain number of other concerns, he has concerning the OneGov contracts that we are still examining, including the fact that contracts with Openai and Anthropic are always deprived despite his request as part of the supply protest process. The demonstrations of offers in a timely manner are reasons to interrupt a sentence, but the docks of the government’s office of responsibility for the demonstration do not indicate whether this criterion was respected with regard to the OPENAI and anthropic agreements.
“The $ 1 agreement was already far from the limits of what could reasonably maintain a secure business AI for the government,” Chaillan said in a statement sent by email. “The offer of 47 cents of Google does it even further. The price of this low is not to serve agencies – it is to force dependence on a single supplier, to hide future costs and to remove equitable competition. What seems inexpensive today will leave the government with higher costs, less options and more risks tomorrow.”
To add an additional concern to the Google Gemini agreement, it will not simply be delivered with typical certified AI services, agent robots, research tools, etc. GSA has taken the time to spell that government agencies also obtained “generation of videos and images” capacities in the framework of the agreement, if this is the kind of thing that concerns you.
The GSA did not answer questions before the publication. ®