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Microsoft employees slam $480M HoloLens military contract, refuse to create tech for 'warfare and
Fox News ^ | February 24, 2019 | Christopher Carbone

Posted on 02/24/2019 12:37:14 PM PST by lowbridge

More than 150 Microsoft employees signed a letter demanding the tech giant cancel a $480 million contract to build a HoloLens for the Pentagon, saying they "refuse to create technology for warfare and oppression."

"We are alarmed that Microsoft is working to provide weapons technology to the U.S. military, helping one country's government 'increase lethality' using tools we built. We did not sign up to develop weapons, and we demand a say in how our work is used," the letter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and President Brad Smith, which was posted to Twitter, states.

The employees represent the latest big tech backlash, coming from within Silicon Valley itself, as workers demand more of a say over how tech products are used and how a range of groups are treated internally.

Back in November, according to the Microsoft employees, the company awarded a major contractto the U.S. Army with the stated objective to "rapidly develop, test, and manufacture a single platform that soldiers can use to fight, rehearse, and train that provides increased lethality, mobility, and situational awareness necessary to achieve overmatch against our current and future adversaries."

The workers demand that Microsoft cancel the contract, cease developing any and all weapons technologies, draft a public-facing policy around the acceptable use of such technology, and appoint an independent, external ethics review board with the power to enforce compliance.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: hololens; microsoft; military
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Full title: Microsoft employees slam $480M HoloLens military contract, refuse to create tech for 'warfare and oppression'
1 posted on 02/24/2019 12:37:14 PM PST by lowbridge
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To: lowbridge

I don’t want them working on military projects either.

“Abort, Retry, Fail?”


2 posted on 02/24/2019 12:38:09 PM PST by bigbob (Trust Trump. Trust the Plan.)
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To: lowbridge

IIRC correctly, last year google employees petitioned management to stop working with US military on AI development. Management agreed. Now they work with a chinese university which works with the chinese military.

There outta be a law.


3 posted on 02/24/2019 12:39:01 PM PST by morphing libertarian (Use Comey's Report; Indict Hillary now; build Kate's wall. --- Proud Smelly Walmart Deplorable)
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To: lowbridge

I’ve got a bulletin for them: Windows operating systems are present on computers that the DoD owns and use routinely. That horse left the barn a couple of decades ago.


4 posted on 02/24/2019 12:39:04 PM PST by alancarp (George Orwell was an optimist.)
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To: lowbridge

I’ll develop it for them....


5 posted on 02/24/2019 12:39:56 PM PST by GraceG ("If I post an AWESOME MEME, STEAL IT! JUST RE-POST IT IN TWO PLACES PLEASE")
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To: lowbridge

Place the order with Huawei. They have business ahead of politics and not near that much infested with leftists as Microsoft is.


6 posted on 02/24/2019 12:40:07 PM PST by NorseViking
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To: lowbridge

Response should be ‘you are fired’.


7 posted on 02/24/2019 12:40:31 PM PST by Stevenc131
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To: lowbridge
helping one country's government 'increase lethality' using tools we built.

"One country"?? Yeah...THIS country! The same country that houses Microsoft's headquarters. If they don't support this country, I saw kick them right out of it.

8 posted on 02/24/2019 12:40:58 PM PST by montag813 ("This is Montag, Block 813...")
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To: lowbridge

Fire their asses. And by the way, I noticed they didn’t have any big ethical problems creating ways for the CIA and NSA to snoop in on American citizens


9 posted on 02/24/2019 12:40:59 PM PST by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. ....)
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To: lowbridge

I’m sure Microsoft has more than 150 competent employees.
Fire or suspend the 150 who refuse to do what they have been assigned to do. This is an employer-employee relationship.
It is not a Glee Club that votes with Jazz Hands or finger snaps.


10 posted on 02/24/2019 12:41:04 PM PST by lee martell
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To: lowbridge

“More than 150 Microsoft employees “

I wonder what their buddies in China think?


11 posted on 02/24/2019 12:41:51 PM PST by TexasGator (Z1z)
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To: lowbridge

KTA..


12 posted on 02/24/2019 12:42:17 PM PST by rrrod (just an old guy with a gun in his pocket)
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To: lowbridge

They are liars. They are only against US warfare products, and probably Israeli too. If they had a contract with China, where everything is connected to the commie government and/or military (indirectly or directly), they would probably be OK with it.


13 posted on 02/24/2019 12:42:40 PM PST by PghBaldy (12/14 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15 - 1030am - Obama's advance team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: lowbridge

So you Fire them, whats the big deal


14 posted on 02/24/2019 12:43:06 PM PST by eyeamok
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To: lowbridge

One hundred and fifty out N employees (where N is a very large number)?
Not that I’d like to fly anything with Microsoft cr*pware in it, given that I want to Apple years ago because I was sick of blue screens of death.

Fire their simple little *sses. Plenty more coders elsewhere.


15 posted on 02/24/2019 12:43:14 PM PST by Da Coyote
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To: lowbridge

One hundred and fifty out N employees (where N is a very large number)?
Not that I’d like to fly anything with Microsoft cr*pware in it, given that I want to Apple years ago because I was sick of blue screens of death.

Fire their simple little *sses. Plenty more coders elsewhere.


16 posted on 02/24/2019 12:43:19 PM PST by Da Coyote
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To: lowbridge

Not a surprise for a company that likes to hire noncitizens for work. Fire them all and hire patriotic Americans.


17 posted on 02/24/2019 12:43:28 PM PST by Reno89519 (No Amnesty! No Catch-and-Release! Just Say No to All Illegal Aliens! Arrest & Deport!)
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To: morphing libertarian

What would be the greater threat of a virus or backdoor;

the Chinese, or disgruntled MS employees?

The Chinese, for sure. MS, probably, but worse because they are not generally suspected.


18 posted on 02/24/2019 12:45:06 PM PST by Scrambler Bob (You know that I am full of /S)
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To: lowbridge

Microsoft needs to fix 150 hiring mistakes.


19 posted on 02/24/2019 12:46:18 PM PST by MV=PY (The Magic Question: Who's paying for it?)
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To: lowbridge

Hmm. How to respond. How about, fire their whiny @$$es?


20 posted on 02/24/2019 12:46:56 PM PST by Flatus I. Maximus (There are lies, damned lies, and the Washington Post.)
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