Latest news with #MustafaSuleyman
The National
16-05-2025
- Business
- The National
Microsoft Gaza accusations: Company responds to concerns about work with Israel
Microsoft on Friday announced that an internal review had found "no evidence" its products have been used to harm people in Gaza. The statement, posted to the "Microsoft On the Issues" website, comes weeks after several employees interrupted a speech by Microsoft's AI chief Mustafa Suleyman and accused the tech firm of harming civilians in the Palestinian enclave. The statement said the Redmond, Washington-based company conducted a review, with the help of an outside firm, that involved interviews with dozens of employees and the lengthy assessment of documents after it "heard concerns from our employees and the public about media reports regarding Microsoft's Azure and AI technologies". The statement reiterated, however, that Microsoft works with the Israel Ministry of Defence by providing software as well as the company's Azure cloud and AI services. "As with many governments around the world, we also work with the Israeli government to protect its national cyberspace against external threats," Microsoft's statement explained, adding that the company's review found no evidence that Microsoft's offerings were used to harm people, nor did it find evidence that Israel's military failed to comply with Microsoft's terms of service. There were some caveats in Microsoft's statement, however. "Microsoft provided limited emergency support to the Israeli government in the weeks following October 7, 2023, to help rescue hostages," the statement continued, saying those instances came with "significant oversight" from the company. It also said that throughout those instances, it tried to ensure that privacy and other rights of civilians in Gaza were respected. Towards the end of the statement, however, there was acknowledgement that because of the nature of how software and AI tools are used, Microsoft's own investigation might have been limited. "Microsoft does not have visibility into how customers use our software on their own servers or other devices," the company explained, before concluding with a message expressing concern over the loss of life in Israel and Gaza. Israel's punishing campaign in the enclave – which followed the 2023 attacks by Hamas-led fighters on Israel that resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people and the capture of 240 hostages – has killed about 53,000 people and injured at least 118,000. Microsoft is not the only tech company to become the object of criticism in the context of the Israel-Gaza war In May, Palantir chief executive Alex Karp spent more than 10 minutes sparring with a protester at an event over the company's technology being used by the Israeli military. 'She believes I'm evil, and I believe she's an unwitting product of an evil force, Hamas. She's unwittingly part of their strategy. She's a product,' Mr Karp said to the crowd, referring to the demonstrator who interrupted a panel discussion in Washington. Several days later, in a letter to shareholders, he doubled down on his thoughts about the recent spike in demonstrations against his company, and even quoted former US president Richard Nixon. "Always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win, unless you hate them. And then, you destroy yourself," he wrote. "We note only that our commitment to building software for the US military, to those whom we have asked to step into harm's way, remains steadfast, when such a commitment is fashionable and convenient and when it is not." The increasingly powerful AI tech firm Scale AI has come under similar criticism for having significant contracts with the US military. The company's chief executive stood by the company's work and addressed the concerns from critics in a recent interview at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. 'We're at the brink of this incredibly powerful new technology, and the applications for national security are obvious," he explained. "It's going to be imperative for the US to stay ahead."
The Verge
16-05-2025
- Business
- The Verge
Microsoft says its Azure and AI tech hasn't harmed people in Gaza
Microsoft says it has found no evidence that the Israeli military has used its Azure and AI technology to harm Palestinian civilians or anyone else in Gaza. The software maker says it has 'conducted an internal review and engaged an external firm,' to perform a review, after some Microsoft employees have repeatedly called on the company to cut its contracts with the Israeli government. Microsoft says that its relationship with the Israel Ministry of Defense (IMOD) is 'structured as a standard commercial relationship,' and that it has 'found no evidence that Microsoft's Azure and AI technologies, or any of our other software, have been used to harm people or that IMOD has failed to comply with our terms of service or our AI Code of Conduct.' Microsoft's AI code of conduct requires that customers use human oversight and access controls to ensure cloud and AI services don't inflict harm 'in any way that is prohibited by law.' The review process included ''interviewing dozens of employees and assessing documents,' looking for evidence that Microsoft technologies were being used to target or harm anyone in Gaza. However, the company notes that it 'does not have visibility into how customers use our software on their own servers or other devices,' so the evidence to inform its review is clearly very limited in scope. The review comes just weeks after two former Microsoft employees disrupted the company's 50th-anniversary event, with one calling Microsoft's AI CEO, Mustafa Suleyman, a 'war profiteer' and demanding that Microsoft 'stop using AI for genocide in our region.' A second protester interrupted Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, former CEO Steve Ballmer, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella later on in the event. Both former Microsoft employees also sent separate emails to thousands of coworkers, protesting the company providing software, cloud services, and consulting services to the Israeli military. The first protester, Ibtihal Aboussad, was fired, and the second, Vaniya Agrawal, was dismissed shortly after putting in her two weeks' notice. Both are associated with No Azure for Apartheid, a group of current and former Microsoft employees rallying against Microsoft's contracts with Israel. The group accuses Microsoft of 'supporting and enabling an apartheid state,' by not suspending sales of cloud and AI services to Israel, like it did to Russia when it invaded Ukraine. It has also highlighted reports from The Guardian and the Associated Press, based on leaked documents, that detail the Israeli military's increased use of Azure and OpenAI technology to gather information through mass surveillance and use AI tools to transcribe and translate phone calls, texts, and audio messages. Microsoft also reportedly supplied 19,000 hours of engineering support and consultancy services to the Israeli military, in a deal that's said to be valued at around $10 million. 'It is worth noting that militaries typically use their own proprietary software or applications from defense-related providers for the types of surveillance and operations that have been the subject of our employees' questions,' says Microsoft in its blog post. 'Microsoft has not created or provided such software or solutions to the IMOD.' Hossam Nasr, an organizer of No Azure for Apartheid, has taken issue with Microsoft's statement, saying it's 'filled with both lies and contradictions' in an interview with GeekWire. 'There is no form of selling technology to an army that is plausibly accused of genocide — whose leaders are wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court — that would be ethical,' says Nasr. 'That's the premise that we reject.' Nasr also highlighted that Microsoft's statement mentions Israel multiple times, but 'not once did they name Palestinians or Palestinian people or Palestine' in the blog post. 'I think that still speaks to where Microsoft's business interests truly lie.'
Geek Wire
09-05-2025
- Business
- Geek Wire
Tech Moves: Microsoft AI adds CVP; WatchGuard CEO steps down; Amazon vet joins Hims & Hers
GeekWire's startup coverage documents the Pacific Northwest entrepreneurial scene. Sign up for our weekly startup newsletter , and check out the GeekWire funding tracker and venture capital directory . Mark D'Arcy. (Photo via LinkedIn) Former Meta and Time Warner exec Mark D'Arcy is joining Microsoft as a corporate vice president working on the tech giant's consumer AI products. D'Arcy is the new global creative director for Microsoft AI, reporting to Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman. D'Arcy spent more than a decade at Meta in creative and marketing leadership roles. He was at Time Warner for nearly seven years as chief creative officer and later president. The Information first reported D'Arcy's new role, which Microsoft confirmed to GeekWire. D'Arcy will work with engineering, design, and advertising teams to help boost marketing strategy for Microsoft's generative AI Copilot assistant that is embedded within various applications such as Word and Bing. Copilot competes with several chatbots from companies including OpenAI, Meta, Google, Anthropic, and others. Last month Microsoft unveiled a series of updates to Copilot, including a new personalized memory feature designed to recall details from a user's life across conversations. Suleyman joined Microsoft last year after co-founding Inflection AI and previously leading applied AI at DeepMind. Other key personnel changes across the Pacific Northwest tech industry: Prakash Panjwani. (LinkedIn Photo) — WatchGuard Technologies CEO Prakash Panjwani is leaving his post and will transition to serving on the cybersecurity company's board of directors and as a strategic advisor. Vats Srivatsan, an operating partner at Vector Capital, will become interim CEO as WatchGuard looks for a permanent replacement. During his decade at Seattle-based WatchGuard, Panjwani oversaw six strategic acquisitions, mostly recently the purchase of ActZero in January. The company more than tripled its annual recurring revenue under his leadership and also tripled its global employee headcount. 'Few leaders leave the kind of legacy he has — shaping not only the company's strategy, but also producing consistent strong performance and operational excellence,' said Alex Slusky, founding partner and managing director of Vector Capital, WatchGuard's majority owner, in a statement. Nader Kabbani. (Hims & Hers Photo) — Longtime Amazon Vice President Nader Kabbani is now chief operations officer Hims & Hers, a telehealth company that sells direct-to-consumer treatments for conditions such as erectile dysfunction and hair loss. At Amazon, Kabbani most recently held leadership roles in health-related initiatives including managing the company's vaccination task force — which helped employees receive COVID-19 shots — Amazon Pharmacy, and PillPack. His more than 18-year tenure at the Seattle company also included VP positions with last mile, logistics and Kindle operations. — And another Amazonian has taken a new role: Parisa Sadrzadeh, former VP of the company's worldwide delivery service partner program, is now a vice president of DoorDash. Sadrzadeh was at Amazon for nearly 12 years, then moved to Bellevue, Wash.-based Flexport to serve as executive VP. 'I've spent the past decade building technology to empower small businesses globally, and this next chapter of my journey builds off of that experience by moving into physical commerce — a critical area I'm super excited about innovating in for both merchants and the consumers they serve,' Sadrzadeh said on LinkedIn. Gulliver Swenson. (Photo via LinkedIn) — Boundless, a Seattle company with tools for simplifying the immigration process, added two leaders: Gulliver Swenson joins Boundless as VP of people and general counsel. Swenson was previously at Assurance IQ for more than six years and helped lead the company through its acquisition by Prudential. Swenson began his career in a general law practice at Ryan, Swanson & Cleveland. joins Boundless as VP of people and general counsel. Swenson was previously at Assurance IQ for more than six years and helped lead the company through its acquisition by Prudential. Swenson began his career in a general law practice at Ryan, Swanson & Cleveland. Rachel Pepple is now VP of marketing at Boundless. Pepple, who also holds a law degree, comes to the role from Carbon Direct, a startup helping companies manage their climate impacts. Prior to that position, Pepple was a marketing lead at the cybersecurity company ExtraHop for seven years, during which time the business was acquired for $900 million. — Raymond 'R.J.' Ford left his role as general manager for Zillow Group. 'After 15 unforgettable years, I'm closing my Zillow laptop one last time and I'm grateful, humbled, and incredibly proud,' he said on LinkedIn. Ford joined the Seattle real estate company in 2009 and has most recently been Zillow's GM of agent software and advertising for more than nine years. Over his tenure, Ford received five 'leader of the year' awards from his team. He did not disclose what he will be doing next. — Kyle Widrick is now a venture partner at the consumer-oriented investment firm Maveron. The firm, which got its start in Seattle and has offices in San Francisco, has been growing its presence in New York City, which is where Widrick is based. Widrick is 'a serial entrepreneur, a prolific angel investor and has a particular superpower in investing at the frontier of wellness,' said Maveron partner Jason Stoffer in announcing the news. — Gensler, an architecture, design firm and planning firm, appointed Bert deViterbo as managing director of its Seattle office. DeViterbo has been with the company for 14 years and recently relocated from San Francisco. 'Seattle is at an inflection point coming out of the pandemic and I'm optimistic about the future of the city,' deViterbo said in a statement. 'I believe that design has a powerful role to play in shaping the future of Seattle's sports, tech, sciences and higher education sectors, driving collective cultural and economic growth for the region.' — BuyWander added Brent Hendricks as head of operations. Hendricks founded Global Neighborhood, a nonprofit thrift and vintage store that provides workforce training for refugees, which he oversaw for nearly 20 years. Spokane, Wash.-based BuyWander uses AI and other tech to scan, sort and identify thousands of new and like-new products and sell them through an online auction marketplace. Shoppers collect their merchandise with curbside pickup, and warehouses also serve as bin stores where customers can dig for deals. The startup recently raised $2 million. — Seattle attorney Jennifer Dumas joined as senior lead council. Dumas was previously general counsel for the Allen Institute for AI (AI2) and an adjust professor at Seattle University's School of Law. Apollo is a Phoenix based advertising company. — Chuck Cory, a tech and investment banking leader with a 33-year run at Morgan Stanley, joined the board of directors of Cory is also an angel investor in Weave, a Seattle company providing AI services to financial institutions and global corporations to help them manage emerging risks, competitive shifts, complex regulations and new business opportunities. — Teradata hired John Ederer of Medina, Wash., as chief financial officer. Ederer was most recently CFO for Model N and K2 Software. San Diego-based Teradata is a cloud analytics and data platform for AI. — Justin Donaldson is chief data scientist for Curvo, a startup is developing technology to improve healthcare supply chains. Donaldson was previously a co-founder of a Kirkland, Wash., startup applying AI to in-house data analysis, and worked in the Seattle area as a data scientist/engineer at Salesforce for nearly a decade. — Trellis Health, a startup co-located in Seattle and San Francisco, formed a medical advisory board. The company is building an online platform for individuals to manage their health data. The board appointees are: — Seattle-area leader Sean Kell joined the board of directors and investor group at The company provides online resources about treatment for addiction and mental health. Kell is CEO of MD², the Bellevue-based concierge medical group. His past titles include chief executive of the retail diamond company Blue Nile and A Place for Mom, as well as leadership roles at Expedia and Starbucks. — Seattle's Circulate added Matt Kaeberlein to its scientific advisory board. The startup launched last year and is developing technologies and treatments that aim to reverse aging and improve health. Kaeberlein is a UW affiliate professor of oral health and CEO of the biotech startup Optispan.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
It seems like most Windows users don't care for Copilot
Copilot, Microsoft's AI assistant, appears to be struggling to match its competition in terms of popularity. The number of people using Copilot has remained around 20 million weekly users for the last year, according to tech newsletter Newcomer, while OpenAI's ChatGPT has hit as high as 400 million weekly users. The data was shared at an annual executive meeting in March by Microsoft's chief financial officer Amy Hood, Newcomer reports, and raise some concerns about the AI future Microsoft is pitching. Microsoft uses OpenAI's models to power Copilot, and the assistant offers similar features to ChatGPT, but they clearly don't draw the same interest from users. The company has also built Copilot into Windows 11, Microsoft 365 and the Edge browser, without apparently reaping the benefit of additional user growth. The need to revamp Copilot, become less dependent on OpenAI and reimagine the company's assistant as a true consumer product were Microsoft's motivations for acqui-hiring Mustafa Suleyman and his team from Inflection AI. Suleyman's work as CEO of Microsoft AI has culminated so far in a redesign of Copilot, and the launch of several new features, including the ability for the AI to take action for you in certain websites. It's maybe the start of a cohesive vision, but not one that's immediately connected with Windows users or anyone else. Microsoft invested billions in OpenAI to aid the company's research and gain privileged access to its models, all in the hopes of competing with Google. Even with that access, ChatGPT arriving first seems to have had the biggest impact on turning people into AI users. ChatGPT was the AI assistant people tried first, and it's not clear what new Copilot feature will pull them away.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Microsoft faces growing unrest over role in Israel's war on Gaza: ‘Close to a tipping point'
For the second time in the last month, Microsoft employees disrupted high-level executives speaking at an event celebrating the company's 50th anniversary on 4 April, in protest against the company's role in Israel's ongoing siege on Gaza. The AI executive Mustafa Suleyman was interrupted by the employees Ibtihal Aboussad and Vaniya Agrawal. The two were fired within days. The Microsoft president, Brad Smith, and the former CEO Steve Ballmer were shouted down at Seattle's Great Hall on 20 March by a current and former employee. The March event was preceded by a rally outside that also included current and former employees of the tech giant. Protesters projected a sign on to the hall's wall saying: 'Microsoft powers genocide' – a reference to Israel's extensive use of the company's AI and cloud computing services since 7 October 2023, as 'the IDF's insatiable demand for bombs was matched by its need for greater access to cloud computing services,' the Guardian reported. Related: Revealed: Microsoft deepened ties with Israeli military to provide tech support during Gaza war The rally and disruption were the latest of a growing number of protests in which employees at Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington state, have urged the company to cut ties with Israel, after discontent around the issue among some of them simmered for a year-plus on company message boards, in emails and on calls with what the company calls 'workplace conflict' team members. Taken together, the protests suggest that more will follow, as well as employees deciding to leave the company altogether, according to present and past employees who spoke to the Guardian. Microsoft did not reply to a request for comment. The series of events echoes those at other tech companies, including Google, where employees have likewise protested against the company's ties to Israel and been fired. In February, Google changed its AI guidelines, removing commitments not to use artificial intelligence for surveillance or weapons. The former Microsoft software engineer Hossam Nasr described the situation at the company as 'very close to a tipping point'. He highlighted the recent events, a 24 February demonstration at the company's first in-person town hall since early in the pandemic and a 24 October lunchtime vigil for the tens of thousands of Palestinians that Israel has killed in the last 18 months, as examples of rising discontent. The February demonstration was short-lived: as the Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, began talking up new products, five employees stood on a platform above, exposing lettering on their T-shirts that spelled out the words: 'Does Our Code Kill Kids, Satya?' Within minutes, several men quietly ushered them out of the room. As for the October rally, Nasr and researcher and the data scientist Abdo Mohamed helped organize the event; both were fired shortly afterward. The dismissals, together with a spate of recent, in-depth articles about Microsoft's role in Israel's siege on Gaza, have helped galvanize those in the company who are concerned about the issue, according to Nasr, the former employee Aboussad, and two current employees who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. Aboussad told the Guardian she had grown increasingly conflicted in recent months as a software engineer working in AI. After several years at the company, she said, recent reporting 'showed [me] more and more Microsoft's deep ties to the Israeli government'. An AP report on the use of US-made AI in Gaza, including Microsoft's, was the 'last straw because it showed that AI is being used to target and murder Palestinians … I began thinking, there's no way I can stay at Microsoft and have clean hands,' Aboussad said. The software engineer said it was impossible to know if her work was deployed in Gaza, since the company 'anonymizes' all contracts with the Israeli government. At the same time, she said: 'I'm not confident my paycheck doesn't originate from money that comes from the Israeli government.' Within days of speaking to the Guardian, Aboussad was fired. A half-dozen or so colleagues have told her they were thinking of leaving the company, she said. Before the recent, in-person protests, Microsoft employees had been mostly weighing in online about Hamas's attack and Israel's ongoing retaliation. Some discourse on Microsoft's Viva Engage company message board grew contentious. One employee posted: 'There is no symmetry between people who educate their children on [sic] schools to murder Jewish people and people that are just defending themselves.' Several pleas for compassion for Palestinians were met with the blunt epithet 'terrorist supporters'. Employees concerned about the fate of Palestinians or critical of Israel have also been complaining about what they viewed as a double standard since shortly after 7 October. They allege Microsoft censors their viewpoints in internal forums but does not treat supporters of Israel the same. One employee who spoke with the Guardian shared screenshots of emails from members of the company's 'Global Employee Relations Team', whose job is to handle 'complex and sensitive matters, conduct investigations and manage workplace conflict', according to Microsoft. One email details an employee complaint over the use of terms such as 'ethnic cleansing' on Viva Engage, to describe Israel's actions in Gaza. Another message underlines the need to follow 'company values' like 'respect and kindness to each other' when posting about Israel and Gaza or the West Bank. On 16 November 2023, Microsoft blocked employees from posting in the message board's 'All Company' channel altogether, which broadcasts to all of Microsoft's 400,000 employees and vendors. The tenor of online, internal activism changed over the course of 2024, said Nasr. In the months following 7 October, many employees with concerns about events in Gaza focused on Microsoft's public statements and circulated a petition urging the company to publicly call for a ceasefire. But their attention gradually turned to the company's own business practices, he said. By mid-year, Nasr and others were organizing 'No Azure for Apartheid' a reference to Microsoft's Azure suite of cloud computing and AI products. The group gathers signatures from fellow employees on a petition urging the company to cancel its cloud computing and AI contracts with the Israeli military and to disclose its ties to the country's government. In the new year, documents obtained by Dropsite, an independent news outlet, revealed 'a 'gold rush' among tech companies seeking to provide services to the Israeli military'– including Microsoft. Dropsite shared the documents with the Guardian, leading to another story, and with +972 magazine, an Israeli outlet. A month later, on 18 February, the AP published its own reporting. This run of detailed, in-depth reporting fueled the simmering concerns among some Microsoft employees. The day after the AP's investigation published, according to screenshots of Viva Engage messages, an employee asked senior leadership about the articles, wondering whether 'Microsoft has completely abandoned its … Human Rights Statements?' The post notes that Microsoft's human rights commitments include 'champion[ing] the positive role of technology across the globe' and 'reduce[ing] the risk of harm'. 'However, this AP investigation clearly shows the AI technology we provide directly enables Gaza's destruction,' the post reads. By the next morning, the post was removed from the chat. The handful of articles has been 'absolutely critical' to offline organizing efforts, said Anna Hattle, who has been with the company nearly five years. This is particularly true since 'a lot of tech workers exist in a bubble, and Microsoft wants to keep it that way. An employee who doesn't know their work is being used for AI weapons isn't going to do anything about it.' At work and at rallies, she said, 'individual conversations with [fellow employees]' helps spread information contained in the coverage. Nasr said that No Azure for Apartheid also worked with Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) to add Microsoft to its list of boycott campaigns. BDS announced the campaign 3 April, highlighting how the 'Israeli army relies heavily on Microsoft to meet technological requirements.' At the same time, one Microsoft employee told the Guardian she was 'exhausted' by the struggle to draw attention to what she sees as a betrayal of the company's stated values in its contracts with Israel. As an example, she cited an event in which the Palestinian journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin was invited in November 2023, to speak to employees. Israeli employees filed reports alleging that the organizers were antisemitic, and the company cancelled the event. She also pointed to the back and forth on Viva Engage, including one screenshot that showed an employee calling Palestinians 'Killers. Terrorists. Monsters.' Other employees have already left. On 4 December, Angela Yu sent an email to nearly 30,000 employees announcing her resignation. 'I joined Microsoft with the belief that my work will advance technology 'for the good of humanity',' she wrote. Yu highlighted the recent reporting on Microsoft's ties to Israel and said: 'It hurts my conscience to know that the products you and I work on are enabling the Israeli military to accelerate its project of ethnic cleansing.' Yu went on to urge anyone reading to sign 'No Azure for Apartheid's' petition. She noted that the company had dropped business contracts for ethical reasons before – including in 1986, when it cut ties with South Africa over apartheid. At the time, Microsoft's global sales were about $100m, according to contemporaneous news coverage – or less than the current value of one contract between the tech company and Israel's ministry of defense. The 'exhausted' employee said these numbers point to the difficulty of protesting against Microsoft's presence in Israel. The company is 'a money machine', she said. 'All they care about is money. AI and work, work, work.'
