Culture Society, Identity and Belonging
Two Microsoft workers claim to have been fired after interrupting the company’s 50th anniversary celebration to protest sales of AI to the Israeli military.
During the event Ibtihal Aboussad walked up to a stage where Microsoft’s AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman was giving a demonstration and shouted: “fifty thousand people have died and Micrsoft powers this genocide in our region”.
Suleyman calmly responded, “thank you for your protest, I hear you,” before the protester was escorted from the event and received a termination letter later that week.
An investigation by AP earlier this year revealed that AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI had been used as part of an IDF programme to select bombing targets in Gaza and Lebanon.
