Microsoft denies claim its AI tech was used by IDF during war to target Gazans
Tech giant says that after a thorough review, in response to protests from workers, it found no evidence that its Azure and AI tech have been used to plan strikes in Gaza
Sharon Wrobel is a tech reporter for The Times of Israel
US tech giant Microsoft denied claims that artificial intelligence and cloud-based computing technologies it supplies to the Israeli military have been used to target people in Gaza amid the ongoing war with the Hamas terror group
In a blog post last week, Microsoft acknowledged that it provides Israel’s Defense Ministry with “software, professional services, Azure cloud services and Azure AI services, including language translation,” and has helped in efforts to locate and rescue Israeli hostages.
Countering growing criticism, the tech giant disclosed that following internal and external reviews, including interviews with dozens of employees, it “found no evidence that Microsoft’s Azure and AI technologies, or any of our other software, have been used to harm people or that IMOD [Israel’s Ministry of Defense] has failed to comply with our terms of service or our AI Code of Conduct.”
However, Microsoft acknowledged that it was not privy to exactly how its programs were used.
“It is important to acknowledge that Microsoft does not have visibility into how customers use our software on their own servers or other devices,” Microsoft said. “Nor do we have visibility to the IMOD’s government cloud operations, which are supported through contracts with cloud providers other than Microsoft.”
The formal acknowledgement came in response to a group of its employees continuing to publicly protest Microsoft’s contracts that provide AI and cloud computing services to the Israeli military.
In April, Microsoft fired two protesting employees who interrupted AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman’s remarks at the company’s 50th-anniversary celebration, accusing the tech giant of selling “AI weapons to the Israeli military.”
A group of workers has been raising concerns within the company for months, calling Israel’s fighting against Hamas a “genocide” and accusing Microsoft of complicity in it. Israel has strenuously denied all accusations of genocide.
“We’ve heard concerns from our employees and the public about media reports regarding Microsoft’s Azure and AI technologies being used by the Israeli military to target civilians or cause harm in the conflict in Gaza,” Microsoft said. “We take these concerns seriously.”
The worker protests followed an investigation by The Associated Press, which claimed earlier this year that AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI had been used as part of an Israeli military program to select bombing targets during the multi-front war against terror groups in Gaza and Lebanon.
The AP’s investigation cited exclusive details drawn from internal company data and documents, including that the alleged usage of AI models by the Israeli military through Azure increased nearly 200 times after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 onslaught — in which thousands of terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages — triggering the war. The report claimed that the IDF uses Azure to transcribe, translate and process intelligence gathered through mass surveillance.
“It is worth noting that militaries typically use their own proprietary software or applications from defense-related providers for the types of surveillance and operations that have been the subject of our employees’ questions,” the tech giant stated. “Microsoft has not created or provided such software or solutions to the IMOD.”
Microsoft pointed out that beyond “the commercial relationship with the IMOD, [it] provided limited emergency support to the Israeli government in the weeks following October 7, 2023, to help rescue hostages.”
“We believe the company followed its principles on a considered and careful basis, to help save the lives of hostages while also honoring the privacy and other rights of civilians in Gaza,” the tech firm said.
Microsoft currently operates development centers in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Nazareth with most of its 3,000 employees working on projects including cybersecurity, AI technologies, big data and healthcare, as well as sales and marketing.
The company opened a local branch in Israel in 1989, and established its first R&D center in Israel, its first outside the US, in 1991.
“Microsoft has long defended the cybersecurity of the State of Israel and the people who live there,” the tech firm said. “We share the profound concern over the loss of civilian life in both Israel and Gaza and have supported humanitarian assistance in both places.”
AP and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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