Microsoft CEO Defends Army Contract for Augmented Reality

Author: Klint Finley / Source: WIRED

Tech workers are increasingly uneasy about their employers’ work with the US government, especially the military.

Some protests have led to real change: Google last year decided not to renew a contract with the Pentagon to apply artificial intelligence to drone footage, after 4,000 employees signed a petition protesting the arrangement.

Last week, a group of Microsoft workers published a

Twitter

asking executives to terminate a contract to develop augmented reality technology for the US military. “We did not sign-up to develop weapons, and we demand a say in how our work is used,” the petition, which was published on Twitter, says.

Monday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella rebuffed the plea. “We made a principled decision that we’re not going to withhold technology from institutions that we have elected in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy,” Nadella told CNN Business at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The petition, which the group Microsoft Workers 4 Good

Twitter

has more than 200 signatures, came in response to a $479 million contract, first reported in November, under which Microsoft will develop prototype HoloLens augmented reality systems for the US…

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