By Kanishka Singh
(Reuters) – Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman’s remarks were interrupted by a pro-Palestinian protesting employee during the technology company’s 50th anniversary celebration on Friday over the firm’s ties with Israel.
“You are a war profiteer. Stop using AI for genocide,” Microsoft employee Ibtihal Aboussad said at the event in Redmond, Washington, while interrupting Suleyman who was talking about the company’s artificial intelligence assistant product.
Suleyman responded by saying: “I hear your protest, thank you.” The protesting employee was then escorted away.
An investigation by The Associated Press revealed earlier this year that AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI were used as part of an Israeli military program to select bombing targets during its wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
Various other firms and educational institutions have also faced protests over their ties with Israel as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza from Israel’s military assault has mounted.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023, when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent assault on Hamas-governed Gaza has killed over 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gazan health officials, while also triggering accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies. The assault has internally displaced nearly Gaza’s entire 2.3 million population and caused a hunger crisis.
The Verge tech news website quoted an email that Aboussad, the protesting employee, sent to other Microsoft employees justifying her protest.
Microsoft said it provided many avenues for all voices to be heard in a way that does not cause business interruption.
Aboussad was cited by AP to be saying that she and another protesting employee lost access to their work accounts after the protest.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington and Jeffrey Dastin in Redmond; Editing by Stephen Coates)
