
Microsoft reviewing Israeli army's use of its tech amid worker protests
A second day of protests at the Microsoft campus on Wednesday called for the tech giant to immediately cut its business ties with Israel. A spokesperson for the Redmond Police Department confirmed that several protesters have been arrested.
Microsoft late last week said it was tapping a law firm to investigate allegations reported by British newspaper The Guardian that the Israeli Defense Forces used Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform to store phone call data obtained through the mass surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
'Microsoft's standard terms of service prohibit this type of usage," the company said in a statement posted Friday, adding that the report raises 'precise allegations that merit a full and urgent review.'
The company said it will share the findings after law firm Covington & Burling completes its review.
The promised review was insufficient for the employee-led No Azure for Apartheid group, which for months has protested Microsoft's supplying the Israeli military with technology used for its war against Hamas in Gaza.
In February, The Associated Press revealed previously unreported details about the American tech giant's close partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, with military use of commercial AI products skyrocketing by nearly 200 times after the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. The AP reported that the Israeli military uses Azure to transcribe, translate and process intelligence gathered through mass surveillance, which can then be cross-checked with Israel's in-house AI-enabled targeting systems.
Following The AP's report, Microsoft acknowledged the military applications but said a review it commissioned found no evidence that its Azure platform and artificial intelligence technologies were used to target or harm people in Gaza. Microsoft did not share a copy of that review or say who conducted it.
Microsoft in May fired an employee who interrupted a speech by CEO Satya Nadella to protest the contracts, and in April, fired two others who interrupted the company's 50th anniversary celebration.
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Indian Express
3 minutes ago
- Indian Express
AI investments failing? 95 per cent of firms see no returns, says MIT
Major IT firms like Microsoft, Google and others are laying off people left and right and replacing them with AI to maximise profit, but a new study suggests that nearly 95 per cent of companies which attempted to incorporate generative AI into their workflow are seeing zero returns. According to a study conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology titled 'The GenAI Divide: State of AI in Business 2025', U.S.-based firms that have invested somewhere between $35 billion to $40 billion in generative AI are seeing little to no measurable impact on their profit or loss. The research, which included 150 interviews with AI leaders, an examination of 300 AI applications, and a survey of 350 employees at different organisations, found that the majority of AI pilot programs failed to meet their targets because of 'brittle workflows, lack of contextual learning, and misalignment with day-to-day operations.' And while AI did work for back office tasks like administrative and repetitive functions, more than half of the money spent on AI was spent on sales and marketing and failed, two areas where researchers say human involvement is still required. In a statement to Fortune, Aditya Challlapally, the lead author of the report, said that while some companies 'have seen revenues jump from zero to $20 million in a year', the majority of organisations are having a hard time as there is a huge 'learning gap.' Despite executives blaming regulations and model performance, the study revealed that the problem lay in the flawed enterprise integration of AI tools. Researchers also noted that consumer-centric AI chatbots like ChatGPT often stalled and had little to no impact on the output. The major difference between companies that successfully used AI to drive growth and those that didn't lies in the adoption and implementation of the technology. Firms that purchased AI tools from specialised vendors succeeded around 67 per cent of the time, while companies that developed in-house products saw a success of just 33 per cent. MIT's new study also shows that companies that went solo had higher failure rates than those that purchased customised solutions. Also, it was noted that managers, driving adoption and using tools that adapt over time, helped drive growth and productivity. The study also highlights how companies are trying out agentic AI systems to learn, remember and perform certain actions, giving us a glimpse of how enterprise AI will evolve over time.


Mint
3 minutes ago
- Mint
A gold-trading dynasty vies for power in oil-rich Guyana
GEORGETOWN, Guyana—Azruddin Mohamed spent years amassing a collection of Ferraris and Bugattis while racing his dune buggies through rugged back roads here on South America's northwest coast and posting pictures of himself making donations to far-flung indigenous communities. Now the 38-year-old scion of an influential gold-trading clan is directing his fortune toward a wild-card bid for president. U.S. and Guyanese officials warn it could imperil billions in investment and strain relations with the Trump administration. Mohamed's makeover began last year, after the U.S. sanctioned him along with his father and their businesses for alleged tax evasion, graft and gold smuggling. He says he is being unfairly persecuted. In a rare interview, Mohamed told The Wall Street Journal he was running to root out corruption and government mismanagement while uniting a former British colony still sorely divided between those who trace their lineage to Africa and those whose ancestors came from India. Senior Guyanese government officials in particular see him as a political threat for his flashy persona and charity work, Mohamed said. Among other things, Guyanese authorities have accused him of avoiding a large tax bill by under-declaring the value of a Lamborghini Aventador sports car he imported from the U.S. by around $600,000. 'The public, the people would call me president. Then they [Guyanese officials] got upset about it—very petty," he said, sitting beside his father at their office, which houses a mosque upstairs. 'The people want a fresh movement with no alignment." Guyana has a population of around 800,000 people and in some ways is more closely aligned with the island nations of the Caribbean than the South American mainland. But it punches above its weight, especially after new oil fields off its coast began fueling what is now the world's fastest-growing economy. Exxon Mobil's offshore oil project, operated in a consortium with China's Cnooc and incoming partner Chevron, said on Aug. 8 that it had launched a fourth production vessel that would bring Guyana's output to 900,000 barrels a day, making it one of the world's largest crude exporters in per capita terms. A construction boom powered by an influx of Venezuelan migrant laborers is under way onshore. Roads traveled by horse-drawn buggies are being paved, and a new bridge is going up to replace the old floating span. The economy has expanded fivefold since commercial oil production began. Now Mohamed's campaign for the presidential elections on Sept. 1 is unnerving his former friends in government here—his family was a major donor to President Irfaan Ali's first campaign in 2020—as well as U.S. officials, who say electing him would jeopardize bilateral relations, repel investors and derail Guyana's economic transformation. Mohamed, usually a man of few words, has never held public office. He says he is running to better administer the country's oil windfall, which Rystad Energy, an Olso-based consulting firm, estimates could mean $110 billion in state revenue over the next 10 years. Mohamed's father, Nazar Mohamed, 72 years old, said he started his business in the 1980s by exporting gold to New York in his suitcase. He expanded his trading firm into a conglomerate that owned mines, currency exchange houses and a mall while donating to politicians and the country's Muslim community. The U.S. Treasury in June 2024 blacklisted the family and three of their companies for allegedly bribing a government official to falsify customs declarations and evading at least $50 million in taxes on the export of more than 10 metric tons of gold between 2019 and 2023. Nazar Mohamed, who acknowledges evading some taxes but says he is willing to pay them back, spent years working in Guyana's burgeoning energy industry before the sanctions. He stored equipment at his waterfront properties, he said, before oil companies deployed them to offshore projects. They rented his residential complexes to house oil workers brought in to build the industry from scratch. The Mohameds agreed to build a port with two other Guyanese companies and Exxon. Schreiner Parker, head of emerging markets at Rystad, said he was shocked to see the Mohameds as partners in the 2022 port project. 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'Always be ready for survival," he said in one post last year after the U.S. sanctioned him. 'Some people suddenly change. Today you are important to them, tomorrow you're nothing to them. That's the reality of life." President Ali said in an interview that Mohamed risks damaging Guyana's international credibility. 'It's almost an election about our national security," he said. 'It's about putting our financial system at risk, and that is what voters need to take into consideration." Ali, who like the Mohameds is a member of the Indian Muslim community, said he had been close to the family because of its previous support for his party. 'But that does not say that we don't have a responsibility for our country," Ali said. 'We do not tolerate gold smuggling or any form of illegal activity." There is little public polling data, but analysts say Mohamed's party is unlikely to secure the 33 seats it needs to hold a majority in the 65-member Parliament. But even winning a few legislative seats could require the next government to ally with him to form a majority. In 2020, Ali took office with a one-seat majority. 'Mohamed is a game changer," said Christopher Ram, a lawyer and government transparency advocate in Guyana. 'He can do some damage here." The younger Mohamed in May founded a party called We Invest in Nationhood, or WIN. He has visited indigenous hamlets in the gold-rich hinterland, trying to gain support in regions where in the past he had donated money to build houses and paid for residents' healthcare. That same month, Guyanese authorities leveled fresh charges against Mohamed, alleging he avoided a hefty tax bill by declaring the purchase price of a Lamborghini Aventador he imported from the U.S. at $75,000, though it is valued at nearly $700,000. Guyanese prosecutors said they acted on receipts provided by the U.S. government, drawing allegations from Mohamed's campaign of election meddling by the Trump administration, which U.S. officials deny. Government officials say Mohamed's gambit is a cynical effort to gain political clout and shield his family from criminal prosecution. 'He's trying to save his ass," Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo told supporters at a rally this month. The tax bill the Mohameds skipped out on, Jagdeo said, could pay for 50,000 homes for the poor. Write to Kejal Vyas at

The Hindu
3 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Benjamin Netanyahu escalates attack on Australia's Anthony Albanese as Jewish group urges calm
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday (August 21, 2025) stepped up his personal attacks on Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese over his government's decision to recognise a Palestinian state, saying Mr. Albanese's political record had been damaged forever. Diplomatic ties between Australia and Israel have soured since Mr. Albanese's centre-left Labour government last week announced it would conditionally recognise Palestinian statehood, following similar moves by France, Britain and Canada. The decision prompted Mr. Netanyahu to launch a personal attack on Mr. Albanese and he doubled down on his condemnation in an interview to be broadcast on Sky News Australia. "I think his record is forever tarnished by the weakness that he showed in the face of this Hamas terrorist monsters," Mr. Netanyahu said, after describing Mr. Albanese earlier this week as "a weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia's Jews." Sky News Australia released the comments ahead of the broadcast of the full interview on Thursday (August 21, 2025) at 8 p.m. (1000 GMT). Mr. Albanese on Wednesday (August 20, 2025) played down Mr. Netanyahu's criticisms, saying he did not "take these things personally" and that he treated the leaders of other countries with respect. Last week, Mr. Albanese said the Israeli Prime Minister was "in denial" about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where the United Nations (U.N.) has warned of the risk of widespread starvation and international pressure is growing for Israel to allow unrestricted aid into the territory. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry in separate letters sent on Wednesday (August 20, 2025) to both leaders urged them to discuss differences through diplomacy rather than public posturing. "We write to express our deep dismay and concern at the recent 'war of words'," the letters said. "If things need to be said publicly, they should be said using measured and seemly language befitting national leaders. Australia and Israel are mature democracies and their governments need to act accordingly," the council said. Israel this week revoked the visas of Australian diplomats to the Palestinian Authority after Mr. Albanese's government cancelled the visa of an Israeli lawmaker over remarks it considered controversial and inflammatory. Mr. Netanyahu has been facing global pressure over Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which has killed at least 60,000 Palestinians according to the enclave's Health Ministry, and displaced most of the population. Israel's military announced the first steps of an operation to take control of Gaza City on Wednesday (August 20, 2025), calling up tens of thousands of reservists despite many of Israel's closest allies calling for it to reconsider. The offensive began after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 more hostage. Israel is currently considering a new ceasefire proposal.