The fiftieth anniversary celebration of the tech big Microsoft was interrupted just lately by firm workers decrying its contract with the Israeli army, in what’s seen as the most recent backlash within the tech trade following the warfare in Gaza.
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 Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer.
“Mustafa, shame on you,” shouted Microsoft worker Ibtihal Aboussad as she walked towards the stage and Suleyman paused his speech. “You claim that you care about using AI for good, but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military. Fifty thousand people have died, and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region,” she mentioned.
The movies of the vocal protest in a brief interval gained floor on-line, being shared dozens of instances.
“Thank you for your protest; I hear you,” Suleyman, who took over the just lately based Microsoft AI, mentioned.
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 individuals, 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 have been onstage – the primary public gathering of the three males who’ve been Microsoft’s CEO since 2014.
An investigation by The Associated Press (AP) revealed earlier this yr that AI fashions from Microsoft and OpenAI had been used as a part of an Israeli army program to pick out bombing targets throughout 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.
Various different companies, meals and beverage chains, and academic establishments have additionally confronted protests over their perceived ties with Israel because the humanitarian disaster in Gaza from Israel’s army assault has mounted.
In February, 5 Microsoft workers have been ejected from a gathering with Nadella for protesting the contracts. While the February occasion was an inside assembly, Friday’s protest was much more public – a live-streamed showcase of the corporate’s previous and future. Some workers additionally rallied exterior the occasion Friday.
“We provide many avenues for all voices to be heard,” mentioned a press release from the corporate Friday. “Importantly, we ask that this be done in a way that does not cause a business disruption. If that happens, we ask participants to relocate. We are committed to ensuring our business practices uphold the highest standards.”
Microsoft declined to say whether or not it was taking additional motion. Aboussad informed 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 capable of log again in, a doable indication that they have been being fired.
Source: www.dailysabah.com