A Microsoft employee disrupted the company’s 50th anniversary event to protest its use of AI.

“Shame on you,” said Microsoft employee Ibtihal Aboussad, speaking directly to Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman. “You are a war profiteer. Stop using AI for genocide. Stop using AI for genocide in our region. You have blood on your hands. All of Microsoft has blood on its hands. How dare you all celebrate when Microsoft is killing children. Shame on you all.”

Sources at Microsoft tell The Verge that shortly after Aboussad was ushered out of Microsoft’s event, she sent an email to a number of email distribution lists that contain hundreds or thousands of Microsoft employees. Here is Aboussad’s email in full:

archive.today link

  • SpiceDealer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 months ago

    The bravery of this women to speak up for injustice! No doubt she is going to “face consequences” for this disruption. Let’s wish her the best.

    Salam Alaykum Ibtiahl Aboussad!

  • DNS@discuss.online
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    2 months ago

    I applaud her for fighting against the ocean tide. Our clothes are made from slave/child labor as well as most of our electronics. Expecting fellow Microsoft employees who are very comfortable in their position to give that up because of AI killing people?

    I absolutely hate how apathetic the world is. It should never be “that’s the way it is” because we, humans, let it get this far. Are corporations to be blamed, consumers, or both?

    Who’s turn is it to pass the hot potato?

    • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 months ago

      For AI? Corporations. No question.

      Microsoft has to bundle its consumer AI products in with other licenses in order to achieve their frankly abysmal adoption rates. They also have recently significantly reduceded plans for further spending on datacenters, indicating that they might already see the writing on the wall.

      OpenAI, the most successful AI “corp”, hemorages money to a mind boggling degree and actually loses money per query.

      It’s not profitable or sustainable. The market forces, if left alone, would not provide enough demand to cover the astronimical costs. Companies with more money than god like Microsoft and now Softbank (although they are having to take out massive loans now) are burning astronomical piles of cash to prop it up.

    • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      it’s a very long email. there’s details of how Microsoft contracts with Israeli Defense to make AI that supports war efforts

    • ripcord@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      What…are you’d confused about, specifically? It’s pretty thoroughly explained.

  • BossDj@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    “I hear your protest, thank you.” He was trained with words of acknowledgement. Such useless words.

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      LinkedIn as in the website owned by Microsoft? You don’t say!

      And Microsoft will now just make sure she vant find a job anywhere? You don’t say

      • Bazoogle@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Of course their not sure. This is an internet forum. The account being gone must mean it was deleted. Honestly, she was probably getting so much bat shit crazy messages, she deleted it herself. That makes the most sense.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      Or she set it to private because she was overwhelmed with the messages she was getting.

    • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Goes to prove that LinkedIn is just exactly like every other social media platform despite what many people seem to believe.

      • Nexz@feddit.nl
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        2 months ago

        Also, Microsoft owns LinkedIn so that might have something to do with it.

    • Puge Henis@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      It’s crazy how democracy is now implicitly democracy incorporated™ where individuals are silenced for expressing opinions about corporations. Vital institutions for a functioning democracy like media is now owned by big corporations, worse yet, in an increasingly monopolized way, blurring the lines between unelected corporations and elected government (who are also bought by corporations after or before they are elected)

        • Puge Henis@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          I fear that we have little time before they become self-sufficient enough on an island like Zuck and don’t need us bickering at each other or outputing wealth for them. Back to the cavemen times where the guys on top control the masses through brute force. This time AI-powered brute force. With advancements in robotics and multimodal AI, what stops Zuck or Musk from training their own army of robots (both humanoid and otherwise) and instruct them to detain or destroy people? They have the means and the data.

          • RedPostItNote@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Lmao. These are crazy billionaire pipe dreams.

            Humans survive through community. Their wealth doesn’t mean shit.

            • Puge Henis@lemmy.ml
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              2 months ago

              “Humans survive through community”: I agree with this but this is not an eternal truth. What that community looks like and consists of have always changed. Community has meant a group of people we hunted together in a jungle, our neighbors, and now more and more people you hang out online, a mixture of these or other groups etc. I can’t see any reason why a community can’t be a group of artificially intelligent robots in the near future. “Their wealth doesn’t mean shit”: This is a take that is idealistic at best and juvenile at worst. It also reads like an oxymoron. “Wealth” “doesn’t mean shit”. Wealth means everything in many of the world’s societies, western ones especially so.

          • SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            IMO since they can’t even seem to wipe their own asses without us the rich will never be self sufficient or self sustaining on their own.

            • Puge Henis@lemmy.ml
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              2 months ago

              Imagine: an AI-powered ass wiper for the rich but it goes ballistic in the middle of it all and starts smearing shit all over the rich boomer who thought an AI-powered ass wiper was a good idea.

              Jokes aside, I want to note there are many of the rich we don’t see clowning in the media like Müsk.

  • slowmotionrunner@lemmy.sdf.org
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    2 months ago

    TL;DR: she works on the speech to text AI product on Azure, which is used by Israel for some of their operations.

    Look, I understand her desire to stop fighting in Palestine, but by that logic, we should also be protesting every software and computer manufacturer.

    • PolydoreSmith@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      By that logic, if it’s not practical to protest every single injustice in the world, we just shouldn’t bother.

      I’d say genocide is a good place to start, wouldn’t you?

        • idriss@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          nobody is profiting from that, so that’s not her point. Linux foundation isnt directly selling something used to detect a blow up kids

          • SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org
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            2 months ago

            They are giving it away for free, which according to you is morally better than selling it? So if I make the AI, make it open source and somebody uses it to blow up kids I’m good. But if I sell it I’m evil?

            • voodooattack@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              The protest is also about computational resources, tech support hours, and not just source code. Anyone could download an open-source state-of-the-art multi-petabyte model given enough bandwidth and time, but not just anyone can run it

              Although the documents do not specify how the different army units use these cloud storage and AI tools, they do indicate that about a third of the purchases were intended for “air-gapped” systems that are isolated from the internet and public networks, strengthening the possibility that the tools have been used for operational purposes — such as combat and intelligence — as opposed to simply logistical or bureaucratic functions. Indeed, two sources in Unit 8200 confirmed that the Military Intelligence Directorate purchased storage and AI services from Microsoft Azure for intelligence-gathering activities, and three other sources in the unit confirmed that similar services were purchased from Amazon’s cloud computing platform, AWS.

              The documents further show that Microsoft personnel work closely with units in the Israeli army to develop products and systems. Dozens of units have purchased “extended engineering services” from Microsoft, in which, according to the company’s website, “Microsoft experts become an integral part of the [customer’s] team.”

              The documents describe, for example, that in recent years the Military Intelligence Directorate has purchased private development meetings and professional workshops, which Microsoft’s experts have given to soldiers at a cost of millions of dollars. Between October 2023 and June 2024 alone, the Israeli Defense Ministry spent $10 million to purchase 19,000 hours of engineering support from Microsoft.
              An intelligence officer who served in a technological role in Unit 8200 in recent years, and worked directly with Microsoft Azure employees before October 7 to develop a surveillance system used to monitor Palestinians, told +972 and Local Call that the company’s developers became so embedded that he referred to them as “people who are already working with the unit,” as if they were soldiers.

              Source: https://www.972mag.com/microsoft-azure-openai-israeli-army-cloud/

            • idriss@lemm.ee
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              2 months ago

              I get your point. But Microsoft knows exactly who is using their cloud and why (id proof and industry), vs something for everyone to grab (LF doesnt require id proof and industry). Microsoft is knowingly serving child murderers and it knows their tech is used to do exactly that.

              You cannot ban kitchen knives because there were a mass stab, but you enforce strict background check so you dont sell rifles to school shooters.

              In other words, impossible to enforce linux ban without removing the open source aspect of it and affect good people like, but totally possible just not serve somebody commiting a genocide.

              • CassiniWarden@infosec.pub
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                2 months ago

                This is an important distinction, and one I wasn’t aware of, that Microsoft know exactly who, where and when the AI is being used, and what exactly it is being used for: the genocide of Palestinians. And who knows what other genocides will follow.

              • freely1333@reddthat.com
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                2 months ago

                I mean they sell to tons of military folks I assume. I know people didn’t sign up for it but the difference between genocide and military operation is purely what side you’re on. Also where do we draw the line? Windows use? Or just ai because of the mass surveillance capabilities? I can’t see that genie going back in the bottle.

                Nothing wrong with the protest and good on them for getting the word out because the scale is crazy but we saw this same shit 20 years ago and nobody has the appetite to politically challenge the status quo so far as the intelligence community etc. and scummy use of technology.

                • idriss@lemm.ee
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                  2 months ago

                  Genocide vs military op depends on side? I am on neither side, an observer from outside and I can see one fully armed side holocausting another side for the past 70 years and making sure nobody from anywhere in the world complain about it through lobbying.

                • denialisposdtected@lemmy.cafe
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                  2 months ago

                  the difference between genocide and military operation is purely what side you’re on.

                  The difference between rape and a good time is also purely what side you’re on.

  • merdaverse@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    It takes massive courage to give up a cozy job at Microsoft and potentially damage your entire career to stand up for your values this way. Props to her!