Microsoft workers revolt against $480m contract to equip soldiers with HoloLens headsets
Microsoft employees are protesting against a $480m (£374m) contract to create an augmented reality headset to "increase lethality" of American soldiers, claiming they have been unwittingly turned into "war profiteers".
Hundreds signed a letter to chief executive Satya Nadella and president Brad Smith regarding the deal it inked in November to provide hundreds of thousands of HoloLens kits to "rapidly develop, test, and manufacture a single platform that soldiers can use to fight, rehearse and train that provides increased lethality, mobility, and situational awareness necessary to achieve overmatch against our current and future adversaries". Microsoft has licensed technology to the military previously but this marks the first time its devices could be used as weapons.
The letter, sent two days before the company is due to launch HoloLens 2 at a major mobile phone conference in Barcelona, stated: “The application of HoloLens within the IVAS system is designed to help people kill. 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 stated.
Mr Smith is understood to have told concerned staff that they could transfer to different departments. HoloLens was initially designed for video games, to improve architecture and engineering design and to teach medics how to perform surgery. Engineers claim it is unethical for Microsoft to instruct them to build products without knowing they would be used on the battlefield. Similar allegations were made of Google, which was forced to cancel controversial Project Maven, which provided AI software for US military drones.“These engineers have now lost their ability to make decisions about what they work on, instead finding themselves implicated as war profiteers,” the letter continued.
A spokesperson for Microsoft said: “We always appreciate feedback from employees and have many avenues for employee voices to be heard.”
Google engineers later complained they had no idea that products they created would be used for killer drones. Following backlash, Google Cloud's newly appointed boss Thomas Kurian recently said that customers using their hosting services must adhere to the company's "artificial intelligence ethics guidelines".
Much of Silicon Valley is quietly working with the US government. A coalition of tech workers regularly meet to discuss how to thwart Amazon, Palantir and Microsoft's deals with US immigration for providing surveillance, detention and deportation tools under Donald Trump.
Announcing the deal last year, a Microsoft spokesman said: “Augmented reality technology will provide troops with more and better information to make decisions. This new work extends our longstanding, trusted relationship with the Department of Defense to this new area.”
HoloLens is worn around the head and over the eyes, projects virtual images onto the real world. The wearer can interact with the graphics using hand gestures like a pinch or pointing an index finger.
First announced in January 2015, HoloLens is not yet available for the general public, however it can be bought for £2,715 for commercial use. It was used by Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to project holograms of Mars Rover images so give scientists can explore the red planet.
Ford and Volvo use it for designing cars and Lowe’s, a hardware shop in the US uses HoloLens to help customers try out different paint colours on virtual walls. The US and Israeli army have begun testing it for training recruits.
