Microsoft’s 50th anniversary gala was interrupted Friday by worker protests against the company’s role in providing artificial intelligence (AI) technology to Israel’s military, the latest controversy in the high-tech industry following the Gaza war.
The protest broke out as Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman spoke to a live crowd–including company co-founder Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer–about the future of developments in Copilot, Microsoft’s AI assistant. Microsoft worker Ibtihal Aboussad disrupted his speech, proceeding on stage and shouting, “Mustafa, shame on you.
You say you care about applying AI for good, but Microsoft is selling AI weapons to the Israeli army,” she yelled, accusing the company of being complicit in what she referred to as genocide in the area. She tossed a keffiyeh a Palestinian solidarity symbol onto the stage before being removed.
Suleyman replied briefly, saying, “Thank you for your protest, I hear you.
Another employee, Vaniya Agrawal, interrupted a later segment of the event with Gates, Ballmer, and present CEO Satya Nadella, their first appearance together since 2014.
The demonstrations came on the heels of a February removal of five employees from a private meeting with Nadella for asking similar questions. Friday’s protest, however, received widespread exposure, as it occurred during a livestreamed presentation highlighting Microsoft’s past and future.
Earlier this year, a probe by the Associated Press found that Microsoft and OpenAI AI technology had been incorporated into Israeli military operations in Gaza and Lebanon.
Microsoft reacted by confirming the devotion to listening to employee concerns but reiterated that disruptions in business events are not acceptable.
The protest is part of a widening trend of resistance across businesses and institutions of learning following the increased number of deaths in Gaza, which Palestinian leaders state has surpassed 61,700 since the war erupted in October 2023.
