Microsoft employees are protesting against a recently signed contract between the US Army and Microsoft amounting to over $479 million, according to a report on Comicbook.com.
The contract is for Microsoft’s newest ‘Integrated Visual Augmented System (IVAS)’ with the HoloLens, Microsoft’s Augmented Reality device. Quite obviously though, not everyone at Microsoft agrees with the contract. The Twitter account @MsWorkers4 posted the following tweet, “On behalf of workers at Microsoft, we’re releasing an open letter to Brad Smith and Satya Nadella, demanding for the cancellation of the IVAS contract with a call for stricter ethical guidelines,” along with a sign-up sheet where fellow employees can join the petition. A letter entitled “HoloLens for Good, not War” was also dedicated to CEO Satya Nadella and President Brad Smith, where employees have listed down the reasons behind their disapproval of the contract.
The letter begins by saying that the employees “refuse to create technology for warfare and oppression,” explaining that the US Military wants to use the HoloLens to train soldiers to fight with augmented reality.
“The application of HoloLens within the IVAS system is designed to help people kill,” the letter states. “It will be deployed on the battlefield, and works by turning warfare into a simulated ‘video game,’ further distancing soldiers from the grim stakes of war and the reality of bloodshed.”
The letter also adds, “Intent to harm is not an acceptable use of technology.”
