Microsoft says it provided AI to Israeli military for war but denies use to harm people in Gaza
Microsoft said Thursday that employee concerns and media reports had prompted the company to launch an internal review and hire an external firm to undertake 'additional fact-finding.' The statement did not identify the outside firm or provide a copy of its report.
The statement also did not directly address several questions about precisely how the Israeli military is using its technologies, and the company declined Friday to comment further. Microsoft declined to answer written questions from The AP about how its AI models helped translate, sort and analyze intelligence used by the military to select targets for airstrikes.
The company's statement said it had provided the Israeli military with software, professional services, Azure cloud storage and Azure AI services, including language translation, and had worked with the Israeli government to protect its national cyberspace against external threats. Microsoft said it had also provided 'special access to our technologies beyond the terms of our commercial agreements' and 'limited emergency support' to Israel as part of the effort to help rescue the more than 250 hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7.
'We provided this help with significant oversight and on a limited basis, including approval of some requests and denial of others,' Microsoft said. 'We believe the company followed its principles on a considered and careful basis, to help save the lives of hostages while also honoring the privacy and other rights of civilians in Gaza.'
The company did not answer whether it or the outside firm it hired communicated or consulted with the Israeli military as part of its internal probe. It also did not respond to requests for additional details about the special assistance it provided to the Israeli military to recover hostages or the specific steps to safeguard the rights and privacy of Palestinians.
In its statement, the company also conceded that it 'does not have visibility into how customers use our software on their own servers or other devices.' The company added that it could not know how its products might be used through other commercial cloud providers.
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