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Microsoft Workers' Letter Demands Company Drop $479 Million HoloLens Military Contract (theverge.com)
A group of Microsoft workers have addressed top executives in a letter demanding the company drop a controversial contract with the U.S. army. The Verge reports: The workers object to the company taking a $479 million contract last year to supply tech for the military's Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS. Under the project, Microsoft, the maker of the HoloLens augmented reality headset, could eventually provide more than 100,000 headsets designed for combat and training in the military. The Army has described the project as a way to "increase lethality by enhancing the ability to detect, decide and engage before the enemy." "We are alarmed that Microsoft is working to provide weapons technology to the US Military, helping one country's government 'increase lethality' using tools we built," the workers write in the letter, addressed to CEO Satya Nadella and president Brad Smith. "We did not sign up to develop weapons, and we demand a say in how our work is used."
The letter, which organizers say included dozens of employee signatures at publication time, argues Microsoft has "crossed the line into weapons development" with the contract. "Intent to harm is not an acceptable use of our technology," it reads. The workers are demanding the company cancel the contract, stop developing any weapons technology, create a public policy committing to not build weapons technology, and appoint an external ethics review board to enforce the policy. While the letter notes the company has an AI ethics review process called Aether, the workers say it is "not robust enough to prevent weapons development, as the IVAS contract demonstrates." "As employees and shareholders we do not want to become war profiteers," the letter sent today concludes. "To that end, we believe that Microsoft must stop in its activities to empower the U.S. Army's ability to cause harm and violence."
The letter, which organizers say included dozens of employee signatures at publication time, argues Microsoft has "crossed the line into weapons development" with the contract. "Intent to harm is not an acceptable use of our technology," it reads. The workers are demanding the company cancel the contract, stop developing any weapons technology, create a public policy committing to not build weapons technology, and appoint an external ethics review board to enforce the policy. While the letter notes the company has an AI ethics review process called Aether, the workers say it is "not robust enough to prevent weapons development, as the IVAS contract demonstrates." "As employees and shareholders we do not want to become war profiteers," the letter sent today concludes. "To that end, we believe that Microsoft must stop in its activities to empower the U.S. Army's ability to cause harm and violence."
Really? They employ how many thousands but only dozens signed it? They should fire every employee on that signed it.
It's hypocritical to take a half stance. Certainly many computers used in every US war are running Microsoft basic products like OSs and data bases. It's evident software is becoming a weapon. What do they suggest? leave the development to Russia and China? Humanity is far from leaving in peace, in the meantime you better keep up.
Won't someone think of the Minecraft players?
This kind of thing is getting a little ridiculous.
The pencils that sit on the desk at some military office somewhere are also involved with the end result. Should people object to making pencils that are bought by the military?
If these people have a problem with what the military does (and I'm not necessarily saying they shouldn't), perhaps they should get involved with politics instead. That's the right way to solve the problem, rather than hiding behind a letter and thinking that absolves them of something.
What do you mean becoming? Windows has been used in command & control and weapons applications for almost two decades.. I'd be happy if Microsoft stepped aside and let UNIX/linux become the primary platforms in DoD. At least something that made sense would be in use... well besides systemd.
Yeah, good luck Microsoft employees. Microsoft never claimed you were going there to change the world or "do good". Google invited its own problems by claiming to do such, and caused itself to hire people who would eventually debate politics at work, object to customers, and believe that business has morals above and beyond those imposed by regulations.
Microsoft employees know what they signed up for. A boring corporation that sells its product to whomever will pay. And mediocre applications that do their job just enough. It's not going to change out of its niche, and I have no expectation that it should.
Most highly intelligent people will be anti war.
And now we get to read all the comments from the sociopaths who can't comprehend how anyone could be anti war.
Weapons aren't optional. If we had none, then evil people would roll through our cities and murder us all!
Further, weapons deter violence. Nations don't launch assaults against nations they know will kick their ass.
Weapons are not inherently evil. That is entirely a matter of how they are used. If you want a say in that, get involved in politics.
Personally, I hope that the U.S. Military gets top-notch tech. I don't care whether or not it comes from Microsoft, I just want to make sure that we don't lose an edge and hence invite assaults from rogue nations.
It could happen, but it's not a good idea. It just gets Microsoft into a pissing match with righteous SJWs. They really should not be fired, just ignored. Employees don't set policy. If they are bothered by this, they can quit. Microsoft management should know that anything they say will be used against them, so just don't say anything beyond "Thank you for your input."
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
Profit. It's the only reason that for-profit companies exist. They make money, or they die. If a company passes up an opportunity to make money, another company will step in. That's capitalism, baby! It's got tons of advantages, but cutthroat cold-heartedness is a downside to the system, and there isn't really any way around it. The Microsoft employees signing this petition have somehow deluded themselves into thinking that they work for a non-profit. They don't, and they don't get much of a say in company policy. Their only real option is to vote with their feet. That's how our system works. A few of my friends refused jobs because they didn't want to design/research/construct weapons. They found something else that suited them better. That's how you express your displeasure with an employer. Everything else is noise.
A time when you can stand on your ethical anti-combat high horse. But please consider there was a time when this was not possible, and then thank your grandparents.
I do see how this contract is different, but Microsoft's self-serving business practises have held back the progress of human civilization by two decades. I don't feel anything connected with Microsoft - certainly not their employees - have any credibility on matters relating to ethics.
Why, there are dozens of signatures on that letter of protest. Management simply can't ignore that!
No, wait, they totally CAN ignore that, and will surely do so. Because dozens, out of ~135,000.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
I'm kind of surprised these demands do not result in the immediate termination of employment. Or is WA not a state where that can happen?.
MS has a generous employee stock purchase program so likely these employees are (minor) shareholders and perfectly within their rights to "demand" this kind of thing. Executive leadership is equally free to completely ignore them unless they can get a sizeable block of shareholders on their side.
Where in the World Is the U.S. Military? (July/August 2015)
Quote: "... the United States still maintains nearly 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and territories abroad..."
Then they should send the letter as shareholders. In fact, something called a shareholder proposal exists and any shareholder can submit one. If enough other shareholders agree, then the company has to follow.
Submitting as an employee is stupid.
[citation needed]
Pacifism is a luxury afforded to those whose enemies live far from them
Quoth George Orwell: "Those who “abjure” violence can only do so because others are committing violence on their behalf."
> Most highly intelligent people will be anti war.
Yes, normal people don't want to be fighting.
And virtually all mammals know what ends a fight. You seem to be missing that particular insight.
Hint - singing a song does not stop an attack.
They didn't sign up to work on gov't projects for the military? Fine, leave - they'll find someone else to do your job. This is a half-billion dollar project, with private market implications and potential, these dozen engineers are replaceable. They replaced Ray Ozzie, they can replace a dozen random engineers fairly quickly.
"Don't let the door hit 'ya where the good lord split 'ya!"
Ken
One thing the military is involved in a lot of places around the world is humanitarian relief, since they can bring in basically a small city with modern medical supplies, doctors, food and water purification plants on demand to any coast.
So don't forget you are demanding not to help THAT either. Seems fairly short-sighted and ill considered to me.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Since this is a US website talking about US company and the US military:
Back then, 70 years ago, the US was defending against attacks, even defending other countries.
Nowadays it is always the US which starts the attacks, committing war crimes and massacres. No more "defense".
So as the ones you defended against back then, you are the same murderous criminal thugs now.
Even that one time 70 years ago was a fluke, a one time thing basically. The US is built on genocides of indians, continued with war and exploitation abroad. Just one generation before the grandparents, the US was a normal a murderous plundering and occupating country just like it is today.
Quote from Smedley D. Butler USMC General:
“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”
The European Theater, yeah. The Pacific Theater, not so much.
Heck, they didn't even have to avoid WWI to avoid WWII in Europe. If they could have just avoided bungling the peace process at the end of WWI, that would've done it.
They clowns are arguing against better training? Better training means fewer casualties and higher survival rates for friendly troops.
The better weapons you have (bigger, more accurate stick), the less you tend to have to use it. Also the less collateral damage. You can be sheep, or you can be the sheepdog.
Just another day in Paradise
Look systemd is a psyop meant to drive other countries crazy
And zero world wars since those bases opened.
The ironic thing here is that the technology is wanted to help reduce casualties (if you can execute an attack faster and with more surprise and accuracy, you suffer fewer losses and can also likely end the conflict faster, reducing the number of enemy deaths as well as civilian), to make any potential battle less devastating. The project that was protested at Google was the same way. These engineers that think they're so smart are just seeing "military" and not looking at the big picture and actual end goal. They're too self righteous to actually take a critical look at the end result. That the project would actually reduce fatalities versus what we have now.
There are bad people out there that prey on the weak. Some of them are heads of nations. A strong military is not a bad thing. It's a deterrent as well as a police force when all other options fail. We should not be encouraging war and conflict, but we should also not be shying away from projecting power as such can have beneficial and positive effects.
When a US company, brand does not want to work with the US mil, let them.
But know the US mil still needs the same products and services.
0. Do it within the mil. That might not happen due to politics and having to always buy in services/products.
1. Create a CIA front company and let it be free to "compete" in the open marketplace.
Wy the CIA, so any sudden international interest can be detected globally.
2. Give that created new company mil work.
3. Let it grow and become a normal company.
4. Find a much better existing patriotic company that has great staff who support the USA fully.
5. Find an existing larger company that can be asked to make a new product.
6. Upgrade an existing smaller company and provide it the details needed to support the mil.
Make sure the staff like the USA, support the US and are actually patriotic.
7. Due full background investigations on short list of approved brands so they can be trusted with mil work this time.
Make sure the company is in the USA and does its great work in the USA. No brands that are an office in the USA and a much larger work force well outside the USA.
Never invest in any US brands that are not security cleared and fully trusted by the US mil again.
8. Where was the security in this? Why are reading about this in real time?
US mil production, secrets should stay secret for decades and/or until allowed to be released to the public/declassified.
Talk with the FBI, GCHQ, MI5/6, NSA/CIA about decades of production lines of quality mil equipment that never got/gets talked about.
Could it be a trap to see who looks, asks, responds to a mentioned US mil project? So its put out to see who requests/looks/networks/asks for more information?
Other nations are fooled into wasting billions of $ and years on VR and start fully importing NSA altered VR consumer computer parts?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
It depends a bit on who those people are. The Hololens team is pretty small in comparison to the total size of Microsoft. If those people are all part of the Hololens project then having them all leave could be a problem. If they're distributed across the entire company then having them all leave would be statistical noise in the normal staff turnover for a company the size of Microsoft.
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Good point, anyone who ever changes their opinion on anything is a hypocrite and should be condemned. Never learn or evolve your ethics, figure them out when you are a kid and stick to them no matter what.
Oh, and whatever you do don't think anything is less than black and white. There is literally no difference between typing up orders in Word and using a Hololens in the field to direct drone strikes.
Good point about China and Russia too. The ICBMs and the hypersonic cruise missiles won't deter them, but Hololens is sure to make them think twice. And that's definitely what it will be used for.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Great point. Unless you have at least 100,000 followers on Twitter your opinion is basically worthless. Never mind that you are one of the key engineers on that project, they will effortlessly replace you if you quit. Remember that next time you think about asking for a raise.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Comment removed based on user account deletion
There is literally no difference between typing up orders in Word and using a Hololens in the field to direct drone strikes.
There's a big difference: the guy writing up orders in word has the potential to do a lot more damage than the guy directing the drone strike.
Do they even have armed personal in the data bases? Or is it just like file cabinets and such?
Well, if you read slashdot enough. You will realize there is a large left leaning anti-American group here who are very loud. And you replied to one asking why he hates America.
I do believe their profits would spike if they went to war with them. May not last forever but they would have a good year. And it may even convince the rest of the companies to stand up to the few loudmouth scum.
You want to find Russian meddling? Here's where you look - the KGB was skilled at exploiting "useful idiots" in the West throughout the cold war.
This has all the hallmarks of the strident, well-intentioned but stupid protests against the Pershing 2 in the 1980s.
-Styopa
You know, this board could use a new metric, TTT, "Time To Trump." It could replace Godwin's Law.
that time is long, long gone. And that's before you take into account Globalism's effect. The rich and powerful have stopped allowing wars except for the occasional one to steal resources (oil mostly). For example, Pakistan has been glibly ignoring terrorists attacking India for decades and still no war there. Why? Bad for business.
At this point the only thing keeping wars going is the Military Industrial Complex. Folks standing up to stop feeding that beast is a good thing.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
he just recognized that the Nazi's having the bomb would be worse.
Also, the bomb is pretty much the last word in military. Between that and our two oceans we don't need to keep building up like we do.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Now this is a letter I can fully support.
If it wasn't for the military's need to communicate securely. Slashdot would not exist! You would not have been able to voice your adolescent opinion.
Very fine comment. And Thank you for you service! The Men and Women like you are why we are a free nation today. And also why these people can express their feelings about this project. I would like to see them try this in Russia, China, Iran, well. I'm sure you get the point. Hopefully they do eventually.
It looks like you're trying to fight a war.
Do you want to
- win hearts and minds
- drone strike
- lock and load!
- nuke 'em 'till they glow
Well, they could always respond by thanking those employees for their input and wishing them well in their new employment search.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Good point, anyone who ever changes their opinion on anything is a hypocrite and should be condemned. Never learn or evolve your ethics, figure them out when you are a kid and stick to them no matter what.
Wait, aren't you from the same SJW movement that thinks that a person should be judged for the rest of their life for something they wrote in their high school yearbook?
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
No, they don't want people to get use to the idea of, "--out of ammo-- [shoot outside the LOS to reload!]"
The war was pretty much won by the time the bombs were dropped. The US had an agreement with the USSR that 1 month after Germany surenders USSR will declare war on Japan. As soon that happened and the Japanese were fighting a 2 front war they would have surrendered but that would have menat sharing Japan with USSR so Truman dropped the bomb one day before USSR declared war. The Japanese still did not surrender but in the meantime in just 3 days the Soviet armies rolled over Manchuria. So Truman dropped the second bomb adn the Japanese surrendered but one could argue the surrender was because of the pasting the Japanese Army was getting from the Soviets in Manchuria rather than the bomb. And they made sure to surrender to the Americans and not the Russians as the Americans are foreigners in Asia and always will be dependent on the host countries but the Russians are an Asian power and would have just absorbed them like they absorbed Eastern Europe.
**Life is too short to be serious**
Where do you get this rubbish from?
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
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Not that Microsoft has anything to do with it, but this is actually the case. I'm actually sitting in a warship as I write this on a port visit in New York. Most of the new combat management systems we've had installed use Linux rather than Windows. Older ones, like Link 11 management consoles, and a few civillian nav radar ARPA consoles are Windows based. But most new stuff that's coming out is Linux. It makes sense. The contractors that develop the systems would rather pocket the money than give it to Microsoft.