AI Enters the Battlefield
Microsoft has publicly confirmed that during the war in Gaza it sold its Azure AI and cloud-computing services to the Israeli military. The company stressed that its systems helped in efforts to locate and rescue hostages – and insisted there's no evidence its technology was ever used to target civilians in Gaza.
Oversight Under Scrutiny
The announcement, tucked into an unsigned corporate blog post, marks Microsoft's first detailed public statement on its deep involvement in the conflict. While the tech giant launched an internal review and hired an external firm for additional fact-finding, details remain scarce on how its tools operate once they're deployed on military servers.
Global Ripple Effects
Microsoft's Israeli military deals aren't unique. Google, Amazon and Palantir also have contracts to provide cloud and AI services for defense purposes. But few have publicly outlined the principles that govern their partnerships with governments in conflict zones.
What's Next?
Employee activists, like the "No Azure for Apartheid" group, are demanding full disclosure of the external review report. Policy experts say this moment could redefine how technology firms negotiate terms of use with states – flipping the script so that companies, not governments, set the rules for high-stakes AI deployments. As AI reshapes modern warfare, the world is watching: Will tech giants step up as gatekeepers of ethical innovation, or will the fog of war obscure accountability?
Reference(s):
Microsoft says it provided AI to Israeli military, denies use for kill
cgtn.com
