Microsoft staff want company to dump weapons tech contract
Workers say they did not sign up to develop weapons after tech firm lands deal to make augmented reality headsets
A group of Microsoft employees are demanding that the company abandons a $480m contract with the US Army to build versions of its HoloLens augmented reality headsets for the battlefield, the latest in a series of protests from workers at technology companies objecting to certain uses of the products they are building. “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,” said the workers in a letter. “We did not sign up to develop weapons, and we demand a say in how our work is used.” The letter, addressed to CEO Satya Nadella and Brad Smith, the company’s president and chief legal officer, comes just days before Microsoft plans to introduce the second version of the HoloLens, a head-mounted device that projects digital imagery onto the physical world. Microsoft has generally described HoloLens as a productivity tool for professionals in fields such as architecture and ...
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