A professional-Palestinian protest by Microsoft staff interrupted the corporate’s 50th anniversary celebration Friday, the most recent backlash over the tech business’s work to produce synthetic intelligence know-how to the Israeli army.
The protest started as Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman was presenting product updates and a long-term imaginative and prescient for the corporate’s AI assistant product, Copilot, to an viewers that included Microsoft co-founder Invoice Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer.
“Mustafa, disgrace on you,” shouted Microsoft worker Ibtihal Aboussad as she walked towards the stage and Suleyman paused his speech. “You declare that you just care about utilizing AI for good however Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli army. Fifty-thousand folks have died and Microsoft powers this genocide in our area.”
“Thanks to your protest, I hear you,” Suleyman stated. Aboussad continued, shouting that Suleyman and “all of Microsoft” had blood on their arms. She additionally threw onto the stage a keffiyeh scarf, which has grow to be a logo of help for Palestinian folks, earlier than being escorted out of the occasion.
A second protester, Microsoft worker Vaniya Agrawal, interrupted one other a part of the celebration throughout which Gates, Ballmer and present CEO Satya Nadella had been on stage — the primary public gathering since 2014 of the three males who’ve been Microsoft’s CEO.
An investigation by The Related Press revealed earlier this year that AI fashions from Microsoft and OpenAI had been used as a part of an Israeli army program to pick out bombing targets in the course of the current wars in Gaza and Lebanon. The story additionally contained particulars of an errant Israeli airstrike in 2023 that struck a automobile carrying members of a Lebanese household, killing three younger women and their grandmother.
In February, 5 Microsoft staff had been ejected from a meeting with Nadella for protesting the contracts. Whereas the February occasion was an inner assembly, Friday’s protest was much more public — a livestreamed showcase of the company’s past and future. Some staff additionally rallied outdoors the occasion Friday.
“We offer many avenues for all voices to be heard,” stated an announcement from the corporate Friday. “Importantly, we ask that this be performed in a manner that doesn’t trigger a enterprise disruption. If that occurs, we ask contributors to relocate. We’re dedicated to making sure our enterprise practices uphold the best requirements.”
Microsoft declined to say whether or not it was taking additional motion. Aboussad advised the AP she hasn’t but heard something from the corporate however she and Agrawal each misplaced entry to their work accounts after the protest and haven’t been in a position to log again in, a potential indication that they had been being fired.
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