https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/22/microsoft-workers-protest-480m-hololens-military-deal.html
Dozens of Microsoft employees have signed a letter protesting the company's $480 million contract to supply the U.S. Army with augmented reality headsets intended for use on the battlefield.
Under the terms of the deal, the headsets, which place holographic images into the wearer's field of vision, would be adapted to "increase lethality" by "enhancing the ability to detect, decide and engage before the enemy," according to a government description of the project. Microsoft was awarded the contract in November.
"We are a global coalition of Microsoft workers, and we refuse to create technology for warfare and oppression," the employees state in the letter, which was published on an internal message board and circulated via email to employees at the company Friday. More than 50 Microsoft employees signed their names to the letter. Microsoft employees almost 135,000 people worldwide.
The letter, addressed to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and president and chief legal officer Brad Smith, notes that the company has previously licensed technology to the military – including HoloLens for use in training – but has never before "crossed the line into weapons development".
It adds that the program, officially called the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, turns "warfare into a simulated 'video game,' further distancing soldiers from the grim stakes of war and the reality of bloodshed."
The signatories demand that Microsoft cancel the IVAS contract, cease to develop weapons technology and draft an acceptable use policy publicly clarifying those commitments. They also demand an independent ethics review board to ensure compliance with this policy.
The open letter comes days before Microsoft is expected to unveil HoloLens 2, an upgraded version of its augmented reality headset, at an event Sunday at Mobile World Congress, an annual technology conference in Barcelona, Spain.
