Responding to “serious concerns” from employees and the public regarding the Israeli military’s use of Microsoft Azure and AI services, the technology giant revealed it launched an internal investigation, alongside an external firm being brought in for further inquiries.
A statement read: “Based on these reviews, including interviewing dozens of employees and assessing documents, we have found no evidence to date that Microsoft’s Azure and AI technologies have been used to target or harm people in the conflict in Gaza.”
However, Microsoft admitted to providing the Israel Ministry of Defense (IMOD) with software, professional services, Azure cloud services, and Azure AI services, including language translation”.
“As with many governments around the world, we also work with the Israeli government to protect its national cyberspace against external threats,” the statement added.
“Our relationship with the IMOD is structured as a standard commercial relationship. Like all our customers, IMOD’s use of our technology is bound by Microsoft’s terms of service and conditions of use, including our Acceptable Use Policy and our AI Code of Conduct.
“These require customers to implement core responsible AI practices–such as human oversight and access controls–and prohibit the use of our cloud and AI services in any manner that inflicts harm on individuals or organisations or affects individuals in any way that is prohibited by law.”
The statement continued: “Based on our review, including both our internal assessments and external review, we have 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 has failed to comply with our terms of service or our AI Code of Conduct.”
The news comes as earlier reports this year revealed that Microsoft delivered at least $10 million worth of computing and storage resources to the IMOD.
The technology giant added: “It is worth noting that militaries typically use their own proprietary software or applications from defence-related providers for the types of surveillance and operations that have been the subject of our employees’ questions. Microsoft has not created or provided such software or solutions to the IMOD.
“It is important to acknowledge that Microsoft does not have visibility into how customers use our software on their own servers or other devices. This is typically the case for on premise software. Nor do we have visibility to the IMOD’s government cloud operations, which are supported through contracts with cloud providers other than Microsoft. By definition, our reviews do not cover these situations.”
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