Microsoft Employees Protest AI Services to Israeli Military, Raising Ethical Concerns

Microsoft workers protest IDF and Israel gov support

This incident occurred following the firing of two employees in October for organizing an unauthorized vigil in support of Palestinians in Gaza. Five Microsoft employees were removed from a conference on February 24 for protesting company services to the IDF. During the meeting, as Microsoft's CEO Sayata Nadella spoke, the five protest participants stood, each wearing a shirt displaying one word and one letter that collectively spelled out the sentence, "Does our code kill kids, Sayata?". The incident happened without delaying the meeting, and Nadella ignored the protesters. According to photos and videos taken by other conference attendees, the five protesters were seen being escorted out of the room. The protest was due to Microsoft providing the IDF with sophisticated AI models and its Azure cloud computing platforms. The protestors are connected to the No Tech For Apartheid and No Azure For Apartheid campaigns. No Tech For Apartheid connects workers from Amazon, Google, and Microsoft to end their contracts with the IDF and the government. No Azure for Apartheid is the coalition of around 1,000 Microsoft employees protesting for Microsoft executives to terminate contracts between the IDF and the Israeli government. No Azure for Apartheid also calls for Microsoft to disclose all their services to the IDF and Israeli government, publicly call for a ceasefire, and protect all employees who are protecting pro-Palestinian actions, including internal fundraising initiatives on company platforms. On their website, the organization calls for a "demand that Microsoft live up to its own purported ethical values -- by ending its direct and indirect complicity in Israeli apartheid and genocide." Firing of two pro-Palestinian employees This incident occurred following the firing of two employees in October for organizing an unauthorized vigil during lunch. One of the two employees fired was Egyptian-raised, Harvard University graduate Hossam Nasr, who said the purpose of the vigil was "to honor the victims of the Palestinian genocide in Gaza and to call attention to Microsoft's complicity in the genocide". The other employee fired in October, Abdo Mohamed, also from Egypt, "The demands are clear," said Mohamed "Satya Nadella and Microsoft executives need to answer to their workers by dropping contracts with the Israeli military." Mohamad is also involved in the group No Azure for Apartheid. In a statement made by Microsoft, Nasr and Mohamed were terminated in compliance with internal policy. Stay updated with the latest news! Subscribe to The Jerusalem Post Newsletter Subscribe Now "We provide many avenues for all voices to be heard," Microsoft said in a statement provided to AP news, following the protest in February. "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 workers protest sale of AI and cloud services to Israeli military

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Five Microsoft employees were ejected from a meeting with the company's chief executive for protesting contracts to provide artificial intelligence and cloud computing services to the Israeli military. The protest on Monday came after an investigation by The Associated Press revealed last week that sophisticated AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI had been used as part of an Israeli military program to select bombing targets during the recent wars in Gaza and Lebanon. The story also contained details of an errant Israeli airstrike in 2023 that struck a vehicle carrying members of a Lebanese family, killing three young girls and their grandmother. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was speaking about new products at an employee town hall meeting at the company's corporate campus in Redmond, Washington. Workers standing about 15 feet to his right then revealed T-shirts that when they stood side-by-side spelled out the question "Does Our Code Kill Kids, Satya?" Photos and video of the incident, which was live streamed throughout the company, shows Nadella kept speaking and did not acknowledge the protesters. Two men quickly tapped the workers on the shoulders and ushered them out of the room. Microsoft did not respond to an email from the AP on Tuesday seeking comment about the protest or whether the employees involved would face disciplinary action. The company also previously declined to comment about the AP's Feb. 18 story about its contracts with the Israeli military. In October, Microsoft fired two workers for helping organize an unauthorized lunchtime vigil for Palestinian refugees at its headquarters. Microsoft said at the time that it ended the employment of some people "in accordance with internal policy" but declined to give details. A group of workers has been raising concerns within the company for months about Microsoft providing services to the Israeli military through its Azure cloud computing platform. Some employees at the company have also spoken out in support of Israel and said those supporting Palestinians have made them feel unsafe. The AP's investigation included exclusive details drawn from internal company data and documents, including that the usage of AI models by the Israeli military through Azure increased nearly 200 times after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas militants. The AP's report was shared and discussed among Microsoft employees on social media and within the company's internal systems. In a community forum designated for employees to raise concerns with senior leadership, an employee shared links to the AP report. More than a dozen others questioned whether the company was violating its stated principles to defend human rights and not to let its AI models be used to harm people, according to screenshots reviewed by the AP. Abdo Mohamed, a researcher and data scientist who was one of the Microsoft workers fired over the October vigil, said the company is prioritizing profits over its own human rights commitments. "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."

Microsoft Workers Protest Sale of AI and Cloud Services to Israeli Military

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Five Microsoft employees were ejected from a meeting with the company's chief executive for protesting contracts to provide artificial intelligence and cloud computing services to the Israeli military. The protest on Monday came after an investigation by The Associated Press revealed last week that sophisticated AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI had been used as part of an Israeli military program to select bombing targets during the recent wars in Gaza and Lebanon. The story also contained details of an errant Israeli airstrike in 2023 that struck a vehicle carrying members of a Lebanese family, killing three young girls and their grandmother. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was speaking about new products at an employee town hall meeting at the company's corporate campus in Redmond, Washington. Workers standing about 15 feet to his right then revealed T-shirts that when they stood side-by-side spelled out the question "Does Our Code Kill Kids, Satya?" Photos and video of the incident, which was live streamed throughout the company, shows Nadella kept speaking and did not acknowledge the protesters. Two men quickly tapped the workers on the shoulders and ushered them out of the room. Microsoft did not respond to an email from the AP on Tuesday seeking comment about the protest or whether the employees involved would face disciplinary action. The company also previously declined to comment about the AP's Feb. 18 story about its contracts with the Israeli military. In October, Microsoft fired two workers for helping organize an unauthorized lunchtime vigil for Palestinian refugees at its headquarters. Microsoft said at the time that it ended the employment of some people "in accordance with internal policy" but declined to give details. A group of workers has been raising concerns within the company for months about Microsoft providing services to the Israeli military through its Azure cloud computing platform. Some employees at the company have also spoken out in support of Israel and said those supporting Palestinians have made them feel unsafe. The AP's investigation included exclusive details drawn from internal company data and documents, including that the usage of AI models by the Israeli military through Azure increased nearly 200 times after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas militants. The AP's report was shared and discussed among Microsoft employees on social media and within the company's internal systems. In a community forum designated for employees to raise concerns with senior leadership, an employee shared links to the AP report. More than a dozen others questioned whether the company was violating its stated principles to defend human rights and not to let its AI models be used to harm people, according to screenshots reviewed by the AP. Abdo Mohamed, a researcher and data scientist who was one of the Microsoft workers fired over the October vigil, said the company is prioritizing profits over its own human rights commitments. "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." ___ Contact AP's global investigative team at [email protected] or https://www.ap.org/tips/ Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

'Does Our Code Kill Kids?': Microsoft Employees Protest Selling AI to Israel

The tech giant is facing pushback from employees following a report that it's making a lot of money helping Israel decide where to drop bombs in Gaza. Microsoft kicked five employees out of a town hall event yesterday because they were protesting the company’s contracts with the Israeli military. Microsoft is providing artificial intelligence models to the Israeli military to help them fight its wars in Gaza and Lebanon, a business move that’s seen as a moral stain on the company by some of its employees. On February 25, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was on hand at the company’s campus in Redmond, Washington to talk about new products. On the balcony above him, five workers stood in a line wearing a series of coordinated shirts that spelled out Satya’s name and asked the question: “Does our code kill kids?†Nadella never acknowledged the protestors and they were quietly escorted out of the event by security. “We provide many avenues for all voices to be heard,†Microsoft said in a statement about the protests. “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.†But what about the question: “Does our code kill kids?†According to reporting from the Associated Press and Drop Site News, the answer is probably yes. Microsoft has a $133 million contract with the Israeli military to provide the Israeli military with access to OpenAI models through Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform. The Israeli military then uses these models to help it make decisions about where and when to aim its airstrikes in Gaza and Lebanon. Israel’s use of Azure spiked after Hamas attacked the country on October 7, 2023. The Israeli military feeds massive amounts of surveillance data into Microsoft Azure and then uses its AI models to sift through the information and determine adequate targeting locations. Israel told the Associated Press that it’s been doing this for years, but that a human always makes the final decision to strike a location. A lot of children have died in those strikes. Not all Microsoft employees are comfortable with the company profiting off of Israel’s war in Gaza. The protest movement is called No Azure for Apartheid. “Microsoft profits from genocide,†it said in a post on Instagram. “As revealed in the [AP investigation], the Israeli military is Microsoft’s second-largest military customer after the USâ€|the Israeli military is one of the strategically most important Microsoft customers and receives top priority technical services and support.†No Azure for Apartheid published a list of demands in a blog post last year. It wants Microsoft to end its Azure contracts with the Israeli military, disclose all its ties with the country’s military, call for a ceasefire, protect employees, and uphold free speech. In October last year, after these demands were published, Microsoft fired two employees who organized a vigil at the company’s headquarters for Palestinians killed in Gaza. The pain and suffering inflicted on Gaza using AI doesn’t end with Microsoft. On Tuesday night, hours after the protestors were kicked out of the town hall, President Trump posted an AI-generated video on Truth Social. Since his inauguration, Trump has said he’d like to take over Gaza and turn it into a resort. The video he posted showed what that might look like. The AI-slop video is beyond offensive. Elon Musk stands under a shower of money while a song plays. “No more tunnels, no more fear, club gaza is finally here.†In one shot, people mill around a cityscape that looks like Los Angeles while a giant golden statue of Trump looms over them.