A pro-palestine protest by Microsoft employees interrupted the company 50th anniversary On Friday, the last reaction on the work of the technology industry to supply artificial intelligence technology to the Israeli army.
The protest began when Microsoft AI’s CEO, Mustafa Suleyman, presented products updates and a long -term vision for the company’s assistant product, Copilot, to an audience that included the co -founder of Microsoft Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer.
“Mustafa, shame for you,” Microsoft Ibtihal Aboussad shouted while walking towards the stage and Suleyman stopped his speech. “He says he cares to use AI for good, but Microsoft sells weapons from AI to the Israeli army. Fifty thousand people have died and Microsoft drives this genocide in our region.”
“Thank you for your protest, I listen to you,” Suleyman said. Aboussad continued, shouting that Suleyman and “all Microsoft” had blood in their hands. He also launched a Keffiyeh scarf, which has become a support symbol for the Palestinian peoples, before being escorted out of the event.
A second protester, Microsoft’s employee, Vaniya Agrawal, interrupted another part of the celebration during which Gates, Ballmer and the current CEO Satya Nadella were on stage, the first public meeting since 2014 of the three men who have been CEO of Microsoft.
An Associated Press investigation revealed earlier this year That Microsoft and OpenAi AI models had been used as part of an Israeli military program to select bombing objectives during recent wars in Gaza and Lebanon. The story also contained details of a wandering Israeli air attack in 2023 that hit a vehicle that transported the members of a Lebanese family, killing three young people and their grandmother.
In February, five Microsoft employees were ejected from a meeting With Nadella for protesting contracts. While the February event was an internal meeting, Friday’s protest was much more public: a live transmission showcase of the company’s past and future. Some employees also recovered outside the event on Friday.
“We provide many ways for all the voices to be heard,” said a company statement on Friday. “It is important to note that we ask that this be done in a way that does not cause a commercial interruption. If that happens, we ask the participants to move. We are committed to ensure that our commercial practices maintain the highest standards.”
Microsoft refused to say if I was taking more measures. Aboussad told the AP that he had not yet heard anything from the company, but that she and Agrawal lost access to their work accounts after the protest and that they have not been able to log in, a possible indication that they were being fired.
