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Microsoft Fires Engineers for Protesting Against AI Supply to Israeli Military
(MENAFN) Microsoft, the American tech titan, recently terminated two software engineers who raised objections to the company's AI technology being provided to the Israeli military.
Ibtihal Aboussad, a software engineer working in Microsoft’s AI division, was dismissed on Monday for "willful misconduct, disobedience, or neglect of duty." Another engineer, Vaniya Agrawal, had planned to resign on April 11, but Microsoft expedited her resignation on the same day, as reported by a news agency.
The protests began on Friday during Microsoft’s 50th-anniversary event, when Aboussad interrupted a presentation by AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman.
She accused Microsoft of being complicit in the deaths of thousands, shouting that Suleyman had "blood on his hands" and claiming the company was empowering the Israeli military with AI weapons.
She said, "50,000 people have died, and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region." Subsequently, Agrawal disrupted a panel with CEO Satya Nadella, former CEO Steve Ballmer, and founder Bill Gates, loudly declaring, "Shame on all of you. … Cut ties with Israel."
In the aftermath of the protests, Aboussad sent an email to Microsoft’s workers and executives, accusing the company of stifling employee dissent. She included a link to a petition from "No Azure for Apartheid," a group of Microsoft employees who have previously protested the company's connections to Israel.
Ibtihal Aboussad, a software engineer working in Microsoft’s AI division, was dismissed on Monday for "willful misconduct, disobedience, or neglect of duty." Another engineer, Vaniya Agrawal, had planned to resign on April 11, but Microsoft expedited her resignation on the same day, as reported by a news agency.
The protests began on Friday during Microsoft’s 50th-anniversary event, when Aboussad interrupted a presentation by AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman.
She accused Microsoft of being complicit in the deaths of thousands, shouting that Suleyman had "blood on his hands" and claiming the company was empowering the Israeli military with AI weapons.
She said, "50,000 people have died, and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region." Subsequently, Agrawal disrupted a panel with CEO Satya Nadella, former CEO Steve Ballmer, and founder Bill Gates, loudly declaring, "Shame on all of you. … Cut ties with Israel."
In the aftermath of the protests, Aboussad sent an email to Microsoft’s workers and executives, accusing the company of stifling employee dissent. She included a link to a petition from "No Azure for Apartheid," a group of Microsoft employees who have previously protested the company's connections to Israel.
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