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The
organizing effort, described to Reuters by three Microsoft
workers, offers the latest example in the last year of tech
employees protesting cooperation with governments on emerging
technologies.
Microsoft won a contract in November to supply the Army with at
least 2,500 prototypes of augmented reality headsets, which
digitally display contextual information in front of a user's
eyes. The government has said the devices would be used on the
battlefield and in training to improve soldiers "lethality,
mobility and situational awareness."
In the petition to Microsoft executives, posted on Twitter, the
workers said they "did not sign up to develop weapons, and we
demand a say in how our work is used." They called on the
company to develop "a public-facing acceptable use policy" for
its technology and an external review board to publicly enforce
it.
Microsoft said in a statement that it always appreciates
employee feedback. It also referred to an October blog post by
its president, Brad Smith, in which he said the company remained
committed to assisting the military and would advocate for laws
to ensure responsible use of new technologies.
The U.S. Army did not provide immediate comment.
Shares of Microsoft fell 7 cents to $110.90 after hours on
Friday.
Though many governments want to draw upon the expertise of the
biggest U.S. tech companies, employee resistance has added a new
challenge to already complicated relationships.
Worker pushback led Alphabet Inc last year to announce it would
not renew a Pentagon contract in which its artificial
intelligence technology is used to analyze drone imagery.
In other cases, employee criticism has invited greater public
scrutiny to deals, such as $10 billion cloud computing contract
yet to be awarded and various contracts with U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement.
One Microsoft worker, speaking on condition of anonymity, said
it was unclear whether any of the lead petitioners' work was
part of the Army contract. Another said several organizers work
in the company's cloud computing division, which is competing
with rivals Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services to gain more
government work.
Microsoft is expected unveil updates to HoloLens, its headset
for businesses and governments, during an event at the Mobile
World Congress industry conference in Barcelona on Sunday.
(Reporting by Paresh Dave; Editing by Richard Chang and Cynthia
Osterman)
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