WASHINGTON (Agencies): Five Microsoft employees were removed during a company town hall meeting after staging a protest against the company’s contracts supplying Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cloud computing services to the Israeli occupation military.
The demonstration took place on Monday, following an Associated Press (AP) investigation that revealed Microsoft and OpenAI’s advanced AI models had been utilised by the Israeli occupation military to select bombing targets in recent attacks against Gaza and Lebanon.
The report also highlighted a 2023 Israeli air strike that hit a vehicle carrying a Lebanese family, killing three young girls and their grandmother.
As Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella presented new products at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, a group of employees positioned themselves about 15 feet to his right. They then unveiled T-shirts which spelled out the question: “Does Our Code Kill Kids, Satya?”
Photos and videos of the protest, which was live-streamed across Microsoft, show CEO Satya Nadella continuing his speech without acknowledging the demonstrators. Two men quickly approached the protesting employees and escorted them out of the room.
Microsoft defended its actions in a statement, saying: “We provide many avenues for all voices to be heard. 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.”
This is not the first time Microsoft has taken action against employees protesting its involvement with Israel. In October, the company fired two workers for organising an unauthorised vigil for Palestinian refugees at its headquarters. Microsoft said the dismissals were “in accordance with internal policy” but did not provide further details.
For months, a group of Microsoft employees has been raising concerns about the company’s contracts with the Israeli occupation military, particularly its Azure cloud computing services.
The AP investigation, which drew from internal Microsoft data and documents, revealed that Israeli military usage of AI models through the Azure platform surged nearly 200 times following 7 October 2023.
Abdo Mohamed, a researcher and data scientist who was among the Microsoft employees fired in October for organising a vigil for Palestinian refugees, criticised the company for prioritising profits over ethical commitments.
“The demands are clear,” said Mohamed, who is involved with the activist group No Azure for Apartheid. “Satya Nadella and Microsoft executives need to answer to their workers by dropping contracts with the Israeli military.”