Into MicrosoftThe celebration of the 50th anniversary of Friday, a software engineer of the company’s artificial intelligence division interrupted the event with a message: to stop allowing the Israeli military to use Microsoft’s AI products.
At that time, Microsoft AI CEO, Mustafa Sueyman, gave a speech.
« Mustafa, shame on you, » said employee, Ibitihal Aboussad, as he walked to the event stage in Redmond, Washington. « State that you care about the use of AI for good, but Microsoft sells AI weapons in the Israeli military. Fifty thousand people have died and Microsoft enhances this genocide in our region. »
Sueyman responded, acknowledging the protester.
Aboussad continued: « Shame on you. You are a war profite. Stop using ai for genocide, Mustafa. Stop using ai for genocide in our region. You have blood in your hands. All Microsoft have blood in your hands. »
The employee, who works on the Microsoft Ai speech recognition engine team, was quickly escorted.
Shortly after the interruption, Aboussad sent an email, which was seen by CNBC, Sueyman and other Microsoft executives, including CEO Satya NadellaFinance Chief Amy Hood, Chief Operational Carolina Dybeck Happe and Brad Smith, the company’s president.
« I talked today because, after learning that my orgy was feeding my people’s genocide in Palestine, I saw no other moral choice, » said Aboussad on the email. « This is especially true when I have witnessed how Microsoft has tried to soothe and suppress any dissent for my co -workers who sought to come up with this problem. Last year and a half, our Arabic, Palestinian and Muslim community in Microsoft has been silenced, intimidated, besieged and doxxed, with impunity of Microsoft.
A Microsoft spokesman said that the company is committed to fulfilling the highest commercial practices standards.
« We provide many ways to make all the voices heard. It is important for this to be done so that it does not cause a business interruption. If this happens, we ask participants to move, » said the spokesman.
The companies of the AIs in recent months have been resorting to the military use of their products and have participated in treatment with the giants of the defense industry and the Department of Defense.
In November, the anthropic and defense contractor Blame announced a collaboration with Amazon Web services to provide U.S. Intelligence and Defense Agencies access to Anthropic Ai Claude models. Palantir recently signed a new five -year agreement worth up to $ 100 million to expand U.S. military access to its MAVA AI war program.
Openai and Anduril announced an association that allowed the Defense Technology Company to deploy AI advanced systems for « national security missions ». And Last monthScale and forged an agreement with the Department of Defense for an emblematic billionaire program.
Aboussad wrote in the email that after starting work on the Microsoft AI platforms, he was excited to contribute to « avant -garde Ai technology and its applications for the good of humanity. » But he wrote, « I was not informed that Microsoft would sell my work on the military and the Israeli government. »
« I did not sign up for writing a code that violates human rights, » said Aboussad, adding a link to a « No Azur for Apartheid“Request.
In a separate event from Microsoft with executives on the same day, another software engineer, Vaniya Agrawal, interrupted a Nadella speech with a similar protest.
Agrawal later wrote in an email to the executives that would give up the company.
« You may have seen me stand before calling Satya during his speech to Microsoft’s 50th anniversary, » he wrote in the email, which was seen by CNBC. « For the past 1.5 years, I have been more aware of Microsoft’s growing role in military-industrial complex. »
Agrawal said that Microsoft is « accomplice » as « digital weapons maker that enhances surveillance, apartheid and genocide. »
He added that, « working for this company, we are all accomplices. »
« Even if we do not work directly in Ai or Azure, our work is a tacit support and our corporate rise only feeds the system, » Agrawal wrote. Included a call to action to sign the same petition.
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