Microsoft employees demand it drop $479 million U.S. Army contract of ‘HoloLens’ tech
SAN FRANCISCO (Saturday 23rd Feb, 2019) – Microsoft Corp employees of one of its division yesterday demanded that the company cancel a $479 million hardware contract to supply the U.S. Army, with 94 workers signing a petition calling on the company to stop developing “any and all weapons technologies” , as per sources.
The demand is a latest example in the last year of tech employees protesting cooperation with governments on emerging technologies.
Microsoft won a contract in November to supply the Army with at least 2,500 prototypes of augmented reality headsets, which digitally display contextual information in front of a user’s eyes. The government has said the devices would be used on the battlefield and in training to improve soldiers “lethality, mobility and situational awareness.”
In the petition to Microsoft executives, posted on Twitter, the workers said they “did not sign up to develop weapons, and we demand a say in how our work is used.” They called on the company to develop “a public-facing acceptable use policy” for its technology and an external review board to publicly enforce it.
Microsoft issued a statement that it always appreciates employee feedback. It also referred to an October blog post by its president, Brad Smith, in which he said the company remained committed to assisting the military and would advocate for laws to ensure responsible use of new technologies.
Though many governments want utilise the expertise of the big U.S. tech companies, employee resistance has added a new challenge to already complicated relationships.
Worker resistance forced Alphabet Inc last year to announce it would not renew a Pentagon contract in which its artificial intelligence technology is used to analyze drone imagery.
In other cases, employee criticism has invited greater public scrutiny to deals, such as $10 billion cloud computing contract yet to be awarded and various contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Microsoft is expected to reveal updates to ‘HoloLens’, its headset for businesses and governments, during an event at the ‘Mobile World Congress’ industry conference in Barcelona on Sunday.
Meanwhile shares of Microsoft fell 7 cents to $110.90 after hours on Friday.