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In an Open Letter, Microsoft Employees Urge the Company To Not Bid on the US Military's Project JEDI (medium.com)
On Tuesday, Microsoft expressed its intent
to bid on the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract -- a contract that represents a $10 billion project to build cloud services for the Department of Defense. The contract is massive in scope and shrouded in secrecy, which makes it nearly impossible to know what technologies Microsoft would be building for the Department of Defense. At an industry day for JEDI, DoD Chief Management Officer John H. Gibson II explained the program's impact, saying, "We need to be very clear. This program is truly about increasing the lethality of our department." This has ruffled a few feathers inside the Redmond-based software giant. In an open letter published Saturday, an unspecified number of Microsoft employees stated their disapproval. They wrote: Many Microsoft employees don't believe that what we build should be used for waging war. When we decided to work at Microsoft, we were doing so in the hopes of "empowering every person on the planet to achieve more," not with the intent of ending lives and enhancing lethality. For those who say that another company will simply pick up JEDI where Microsoft leaves it, we would ask workers at that company to do the same. A race to the bottom is not an ethical position. Like those who took action at Google, Salesforce, and Amazon, we ask all employees of tech companies to ask how your work will be used, where it will be applied, and act according to your principles.
We need to put JEDI in perspective. This is a secretive $10 billion project with the ambition of building "a more lethal" military force overseen by the Trump Administration. The Google workers who protested these collaborations and forced the company to take action saw this. We do too. So we ask, what are Microsoft's A.I. Principles, especially regarding the violent application of powerful A.I. technology? How will workers, who build and maintain these services in the first place, know whether our work is being used to aid profiling, surveillance, or killing? Earlier this year Microsoft published "The Future Computed," examining the applications and potential dangers of A.I. It argues that strong ethical principles are necessary for the development of A.I. that will benefit people, and defines six core principles: "fair, reliable and safe, private and secure, inclusive, transparent, and accountable."
With JEDI, Microsoft executives are on track to betray these principles in exchange for short-term profits. If Microsoft is to be accountable for the products and services it makes, we need clear ethical guidelines and meaningful accountability governing how we determine which uses of our technology are acceptable, and which are off the table. Microsoft has already acknowledged the dangers of the tech it builds, even calling on the federal government to regulate A.I. technologies. But there is no law preventing the company from exercising its own internal scrutiny and standing by its own ethical compass. Further reading: Google Drops Out of Pentagon's $10 Billion Cloud Competition.
We need to put JEDI in perspective. This is a secretive $10 billion project with the ambition of building "a more lethal" military force overseen by the Trump Administration. The Google workers who protested these collaborations and forced the company to take action saw this. We do too. So we ask, what are Microsoft's A.I. Principles, especially regarding the violent application of powerful A.I. technology? How will workers, who build and maintain these services in the first place, know whether our work is being used to aid profiling, surveillance, or killing? Earlier this year Microsoft published "The Future Computed," examining the applications and potential dangers of A.I. It argues that strong ethical principles are necessary for the development of A.I. that will benefit people, and defines six core principles: "fair, reliable and safe, private and secure, inclusive, transparent, and accountable."
With JEDI, Microsoft executives are on track to betray these principles in exchange for short-term profits. If Microsoft is to be accountable for the products and services it makes, we need clear ethical guidelines and meaningful accountability governing how we determine which uses of our technology are acceptable, and which are off the table. Microsoft has already acknowledged the dangers of the tech it builds, even calling on the federal government to regulate A.I. technologies. But there is no law preventing the company from exercising its own internal scrutiny and standing by its own ethical compass. Further reading: Google Drops Out of Pentagon's $10 Billion Cloud Competition.
But A-OK when Obama did it!
They're Microsoft employees. Send them back to India!
Shouldn't LucasFilm sue the U.S. government for trademark infringement?
I wonder what these same employees would do when China comes knocking on their freedom. Hmmm.
Many Microsoft employees don't believe that what we build should be used for waging war. When we decided to work at Microsoft, we were doing so in the hopes of "empowering every person on the planet to achieve more," not with the intent of ending lives and enhancing lethality
It's for this very reason that these employees should quit. I mean...the USA is a "free" country, no? In fact they (the USA), pride themselves with the mantra:
"The land of the free."
Further, they (the people), and the media "echo chamber" *cough* *cough*, refer to their president as being the "leader" of the free world.
So, why don't they just quit?
I understand that folks here may simply say that the same freedom I am talking about allows them to do exactly whet they are doing. Just quit...problem solved.
If you did you already actively gave approval for military action. Sorry but trying to pretend you are too good of a person when you already voted for a president that takes unilateral military action in nations we are not at war with. That is active consnet folks. If you say pull the trigger refusing the make the bullets is just lying to yourself.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I really wish we could all be naive hyper-liberal globalist-humanists. I would jump on that bandwagon in a second if the whole world went in that direction at the same time. But it isn't. There are really bad actors in this world who would like to destroy all our rights, freedoms, and our safety, even our lives. And the nation is the container of those things. If we do not take actions to protect the container of everything we have and are those things will spill out, destroyed. So, feel smug, hyper-liberals, but you will be responsible for your own demise. And yes boys and girls, sometimes you as a nation have to kill those people trying to kill you. That's the real world. Grow up.
E Proelio Veritas.
This is the what happens when national defense is the problem of "some other kids" who you will never meet or work with. At least with a draft, everyone gets involved. Well, everyone except for the really rich jerks who have a mommy and daddy with connections, but they will be pro-defense no matter what they do.
Run and catch, run and catch, the lamb is caught in the blackberry patch.
Microsoft has been working with DoD for years, from providing Windows and Office licenses, to servers, to IT infrastructure support, and NOW some employees are getting picky about who Microsoft works with? Since this open letter was supported by an "unspecified number of Microsoft employees stated their disapproval" it would be nice to know just how many. I suspect it's a very small (less than 0.1% of their workforce) number of employees behind the open letter. Microsoft should uncover who they are and remind them, in no uncertain terms, that they are employees and have no say in company strategy and policy. If they persist, then Microsoft would be well within its rights to fire their asses.
And they know this, so they don't want to be blamed when significant military installations get owned...
They're putting themselves out of the bidding and trying to spin it as good PR for them instead of lack of faith in their own products.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
When Obama bombed all those countries and funded ISIS those same Microsoft employees didn’t say a word. I wonder why that is.
First, the question should be what is a server network going to be used for? The answer is that this is NOT a weapon. It may be used to TRACK weapons. It may be used to track how effective (i.e. lethal) a weapon is. It may be used to hold intelligence about a field, a base, etc. It may also be used to track terrorists and enemy movements.
Far more likely, it would become ALL OF THAT.
BUT, even when tracking terrorists, it is not about killing them and everything around them. The military does this stuff to not only track a terrorists, but try to figure out when they are away from civilians, and ideally around other terrorists. It does no good for ANY military to kill civilians. They know that. That is why Russia and China go to great lengths to NOT take responsibility for their actions (such as blowing planes out of the sky, re-education camps, invasions of India, Phillipines, Japan, etc). America's DoD, in fact, I would say the western military, work hard to limit collateral damage.
I would imagine that THIS CLOUD would likely be used for such things.
Secondly, it is worth nothing that both Russia and China are working hard on such things. Most likely if they, esp China, ever feel that they ahve a military advantage, they WILL attack on a full-scale war. This is not as true for Russia since they KNOW that MAD would likely occur. BUT, the majority of CHinese leaders, including Xi, believe that not only is a war with the west ultimately winnable, but more importantly, a nuclear war is winnable. IOW, the majority of Chinese leaders do not accept the MAD premise. As such, the only real way to stop this war, is to make sure that the west remains militarily stronger than CHina (not just strong; it has to be that Chinese leaders KNOW that they can not win a regular war with the west, esp against Taiwan, Japan, Philippines, India, etc, or nations that CHina has historically invaded ).
All in all, it is in Google's and MS's, AND THEIR EMPLOYEES, best interest to do this work. If need be, then both companies should spin off side companies and let them do the work. I am sure that plenty of employees will be able to get clearance and then do the work.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Squeak long and loud when you are outraged at A, but are completely blind to (if the same principles behind outrage at A are applied) B through Z and more. Honestly, if these people claim to be smart, well, they should just give up now and go get a job flipping burgers.
Microsoft, dominant player through aggressive monopoly abuse, having recently shoved down everyone's throats an OS that hits the evil trifecta of being malware, spyware, and adware as it fights against user control and privacy at every turn... that Microsoft would compromise their ethics and principles in the name of short term profit by helping the military kill people better in our numerous pointless wars?? I'm shocked. Oh please, help me my heart has stopped from the surprise. I gasped so hard in shock I then choked too.
Microsoft Windows has been used in weapons systems for a very long time, at least since Windows XP that I know of for Navy and Army. That horse left the barn decades ago .
I wonder if the unspecified number is 0, and this whole thing was written by an ex-Microsoft employee looking the make a fuss.
If you really didn't like the military, you would encourage anything that led to the performance of the military depending on Microsoft.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"ManyÂMicrosoftÂemployees don't believe that what we build should be used for waging war."
A bit hypocritical when you consider they have absolutely no problem waging war against their customers. From Clippy to Windows 'telemetry', among many things. Next up: "Renting Windows 10 For Beginners" and "Recovering Lost Data After Windows Update - A Guide For The Consumer".
Surely 'SITH' would be more apt for the US military?
Would we really want the fighter jets to crashdump and freeze up whilst in the middle of battle? ... Nah!
perhaps this is for the best if Microsoft lose the bid.
Its plain. When its citizens don't agree that the country is worth protecting in the most effective ways possible, then other countries are going to deploy similar technology and defeat us. Its similar to hang together or hang separately. I'm glad I'm 71, and likely won't live to see the ultimate calamity of Chinese or maybe even Indian subjugation of the American people.
We can go about our business. Move along.
Then the US gov and mil is free to support much better US brands that fully support the USA.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Well.. if we had a time machine and went applied this logic to retrospectively undevelop all the technology that exists today that was originally created for the military we would missing a lot of really important stuff e.g...
* Computers
* The Internet
* GPS
* Duct tape
* Drones
* Radar
* Microwave ovens
etc etc
I'm guessing you'll later define that relationship in terms that attempt to minimize the US empire (such as not pointing out that the US spends so more more than other world powers do on their militaries, and the US loses track of trillions of dollars which would have been better spent on social services that reflect majoritarian values including Medicare for All, a national jobs program, and potable water for all). The US is what Martin Luther King referred to it as, "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today". So many of the threats Americans face are reactions to American state belligerence. It's worth asking, as Glenn Greenwald did, why the people of Brazil, Chile, and other large and monied countries don't face these retaliatory attacks as Americans do. He points to a 2004 report commissioned by Donald Rumsfeld on terrorism (suggesting listeners look up those keywords online to find the report) and says you'll find that Rumsfeld was told the attackers hate America for its policies, not "hating us for our freedoms" or "hate us because we're involved in a religious war because they have this religion that hypnotizes them into committing violence" (quotes from Greenwald). Chomsky points out that this report was a repeat of a National Security Council document from 1958 commissioned by President Eisenhower when Eisenhower asked "why is there a campaign of hatred against us in the Arab world, not from the governments but from the populations?" (quoting Chomsky). Chomsky summarizes the telling answer:
We all should work for peace now, not wait for undefined others to do the heavy lifting as the thread-starting poster wrote. That overvalued post is indistinguishable from excusing empire-building, predator strikes (extrajudicial assassinations as the US does in its drone war), and endless military spending while Americans go without and die.
Digital Citizen
From my perspective, the JEDI are evil!
This "open letter" was published using a throwaway Medium account called "@EmployeesOfMicrosoft." There is zero evidence that any actual Microsoft employees were involved. You don't write an open petition to your CEO, and then forget to include the list of names! Employees at companies like Microsoft and Google regularly question their company's direction without fear of repercussions, or need for anonymity.
Any random troll could have produced this "open letter," and there are reasonable motives why they might do that.
I want my country's military to "walk softly, and carry a big stick". In fact, I want them to have the "biggest" stick of all countries. But, I also want them to only swing it when necessary. We shouldn't allow despots and tyrants in other countries to intimate (looking at you Assad). We can't allow other countries to block trade routes (looking at you and your phony islands China). And we shouldn't have allowed Russia to take over Crimea, but we didn't have sufficient leverage to prevent it w/o an much bigger war. It's the "walk softly" part that frequently gets overlooked, often by the military. It's their job to be lethal, and in fact many of us can't handle that truth. But, it's also their job to avoid as much collateral damage as feasible.
If you don't want to support the military, I get it. But don't try to prevent them from having the best tools possible, which is part of what this kind of letter is attempting to do...not that MS has those (just my $.02).
Just another day in Paradise
of obi one, saying WUS says we need to reboot due to security updates again, (with slumped over face)