Microsoft staff: do not use HoloLens for war

At least 50 Microsoft employees have asked the company to forgo an agreement with the US military to provide augmented reality technology.

The group said the company's helmet, HoloLens, should not be used to "help people kill".

In November, Microsoft signed a $ 479 million contract to develop a platform involving soldiers using approximately 100,000 helmets.

"We always appreciate employee feedback and we have many ways to make their voices heard," said a spokesman for Microsoft.

A letter sent to Microsoft on Friday and seen by the BBC was supported by employees from several departments.

"Microsoft must stop working to strengthen the US military's ability to cause damage and violence," he says.

"We did not register to develop weapons and we ask for our opinion on how our work is used."

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HoloLens, released for the first time in March 2016 for developers, allows the wearer to see digital images in the real world. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is expected to announce HoloLens 2 at an event held in Barcelona on Sunday, ahead of Mobile World Congress.

Military concern

The letter asks Microsoft to cancel the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) contract, stop developing "all" weapons technologies, and write a public policy statement on the subject.

It also calls for the establishment of an "external and independent ethics committee" to monitor compliance with this policy.

This is not the first time that Microsoft employees denounce the company's work with government entities.

In June, as the Trump government was mired in the controversy over family separations on the US-Mexico border, staff asked the company to stop providing services to the US agency. Immigration and Customs (ICE).

Mr. Nadella finally denounced the White House's actions and said that Microsoft's technology was only used for standard office tasks.

"War profiteers"

With this latest employee rebellion, Microsoft will not have a defense as easy. According to the contract, the goal is "to increase lethality by improving the ability to detect, to decide and to engage in front of the enemy".

Microsoft has reportedly outbid rival developers of augmented reality, such as Magic Leap.

Microsoft President and Senior Counsel Brad Smith said employees who are not satisfied with the nature of the firm's military work would be allowed to work in other departments. However, in the last letter, the employees stated that this suggestion was wrong.

"Microsoft does not inform its engineers of the intent of the software they are building.

"Many engineers have contributed to HoloLens even before signing this contract, thinking that it would be used to help architects and engineers build buildings and cars, teach people how to perform surgery or at the piano , and to connect to the Mars Rover (RIP).

"These engineers have now lost their ability to decide what they are working on, instead of finding themselves involved as war profiteers."

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Microsoft is not the only company to deal with the internal anger aroused by military work. Last year, Google did not renew its collaboration agreement with the United States on Project Maven, an artificial intelligence program being developed with the Pentagon.

However, Amazon's executive director, Jeff Bezos, said his company would work enthusiastically with the military.

"It's a big country, you have to defend it," he said during an interview on stage.

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