Photo: AP
Washington: Five Microsoft employees were expelled from a meeting with the company's CEO after criticising contracts to give artificial intelligence and cloud computing services to the Israeli military.
The protest on Monday came after The Associated Press discovered last week that powerful AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI were employed as part of an Israeli military program to identify bombing targets during the recent Gaza and Lebanon battles.
The story also described an errant Israeli bombing in 2023 that hit a van transporting members of a Lebanese family, killing three little girls and their grandmother.
At an employee town hall meeting on Microsoft's headquarters campus in Redmond, Washington, CEO Satya Nadella discussed new products.
Workers positioned about 15 feet to his right then uncovered T-shirts that, when placed side by side, spell out the question "Does Our Code Kill Kids, Satya?"
Photos and video of the incident, which was live-streamed throughout the workplace, show Nadella speaking without acknowledging the demonstrators. Two men promptly tapped the workers on the shoulders before leading them out of the room.
“We provide many avenues for all voices to be heard,” Microsoft said in a statement provided to the AP. “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.”
When asked on Tuesday whether the employees who participated in the demonstration would face disciplinary punishment, Microsoft declined to comment.
The corporation has previously declined to comment on the Associated Press's February 18 story about its contracts with the Israeli military. In October, Microsoft fired two employees for assisting in organising an unauthorised lunchtime vigil for Palestinian refugees at its offices.
Microsoft stated at the time that it terminated the employment of a few workers "in accordance with internal policy," but declined to provide further details, AP reported.
A group of employees has been raising concerns within the firm for months about Microsoft supplying services to the Israeli military via its Azure cloud computing platform. Some employees at the company have also expressed their support for Israel, claiming that those who support Palestinians have made them feel unsafe.
The AP's investigation featured exclusive insights gleaned from internal corporate data and papers, such as the fact that the Israeli military's use of AI models via Azure increased roughly 200 times following the Hamas militant strike on October 7, 2023.
The AP's report was distributed and discussed among Microsoft employees via social media and internal systems. An employee posted links to an AP piece during a community forum where employees could voice concerns with senior leadership.
More than a dozen others questioned whether the firm was breaching its declared ideals of defending human rights and not allowing its AI models to be used to harm individuals, according to screenshots seen by the Associated Press.
Abdo Mohamed, a Microsoft researcher and data scientist who was fired during the October vigil, claims the firm prioritises profits over its own human rights responsibilities.
“The demands are clear,” said Mohamed, who works with a group of Microsoft workers called No Azure for Apartheid. “Satya Nadella and Microsoft executives need to answer to their workers by dropping contracts with the Israeli military.”