Microsoft fires employee who interrupted CEO’s speech to protest AI tech for Israeli military
SEATTLE AP Microsoft has fired an employee who interrupted a speech by CEO Satya Nadella to protest the company s work supplying the Israeli military with hardware used for the war in Gaza Related Articles Billion dollar pizza Bitcoin soars on key anniversary of crypto s improvement Ticker US to stop making cents Mortgage rates tick up A bigger piece of the pie The original crypto hits a new record over on Bitcoin Pizza Day Hot Property Lots to love in Milton masterpiece Average rate on a US -year mortgage rises to its highest level since mid-February Program engineer Joe Lopez could be heard shouting at Nadella in the opening minutes Monday of the tech giant s annual Build developer conference in Seattle before getting escorted out of the room Lopez later sent a mass email to colleagues disputing the company s states about how its Azure cloud computing platform is used in Gaza Lopez s outburst was the first of several pro-Palestinian disruptions at the event that drew thousands of program developers to the Seattle Convention Center At least three talks by executives were disrupted the company even briefly cut the audio of one livestreamed event Protesters also gathered outside the venue Microsoft has previously fired employees who protested company events over its work in Israel including at its th anniversary party in April Microsoft acknowledged last week that it provided AI services to the Israeli military for the war in Gaza but reported it had ascertained no evidence to date that its Azure platform and AI technologies were used to target or harm people in Gaza The advocacy group No Azure for Apartheid led by employees and ex-employees says Lopez received a termination letter after his Monday protest but couldn t open it The group also says the company has blocked internal emails that mention words including Palestine and Gaza Microsoft hasn t returned emailed requests for comment about its response to this week s protests The four-day conference ends Thursday
