r/PublicFreakout • u/SainzSealedDelivered • 4d ago
✊Protest Freakout Protester Interrupts Microsoft AI Copilot Event
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u/somebigface 4d ago
So anyway, back to the useless AI companion.
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u/mkenn723 4d ago
It is it’s useless unless you go through a million different paywalls to use it completely
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u/CMDR_BitMedler 4d ago
It's useless because you have to pay for it? Is compute free in your world?
I'd argue yelling pretty much anything at a billionaire is useless. During a tech presentation, doubly so.
Not arguing the protester is wrong, just ineffective.
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u/mkenn723 3d ago
lol no my point is you pay for it but then find out you can only use it to do “x”. If you want to be able to do “y” with it you have to pay more and if you want it to be able to do “z” you have to pay more. If I’m paying for an AI it better be worth it and this one is not.
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u/Cageweek 4d ago
Back to this useless AI companion very few will use because it's almost always more of a pain in the ass to use an AI assistant than it is to just manually do anything yourself.
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u/Raumfalter 3d ago
All y'all AI hating Redditors sound so much like boomers, it's not even funny. Gonna be a cute footnote in 50 years, like we snicker today about folks who opposed cars and electricity and computers back in the days.
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u/Cageweek 2d ago
We've had AI assistants for well over a decade, like Alexa, Siri, Cortana et cetera. There's nothing new about this shit.
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u/TheMightyWubbard 2d ago
You are pissing in the wind. Reddit is 90% pure wasters, blaming everyone else for their shite lives. Fuck em. Leave them moaning about how life is so unfair whilst we outcompete them.
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u/Bandin03 4d ago edited 3d ago
Useless for the vast majority of people but I use it every day at work to do tedious bullshit for me.
Edit: Man, apparently finding a valid use for AI upsets people for some reason.
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u/EmergencyKrabbyPatty 4d ago
Do companies really think all people want is AI everywhere ? Im personally tired of having chatbot everywhere, generated bullshit websites and all those shit AI companion...
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u/TheLaziestAdam 4d ago
Doesn't matter what people want, it's what the companies and businesses want.
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u/tape_snake 4d ago
And what the business want is your money and data. AI gets them both in one swing - any AI features that are useful you have to pay for, and they collect more data on you through the AI, also helping them train it. Paying for this stuff is, more often than not, lose-lose.
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u/ArethereWaffles 4d ago edited 4d ago
It's investors.
Internet of Things, 5G, Metaverse, blockchain, AI, there's always been some technobabble buzz word that all the investors want to chase. The buzzword changes from year to year (although AI has held the throne for a couple years now) and most of said investors don't actually know what the terms mean. All they know is that it made someone else very very rich.
Thus you get companies big and small all trying to chase the buzzword to cash in on that money, which is how you get stupid stuff like the the "AI chair".
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u/TotalSarcasm 4d ago
That chair is hilarious. Guaranteed it bricks at some point and no longer functions as a regular chair.
Aside from the gimmicky assistants and chatbots though, there is a ton of really impressive, enterprise level AI stuff going down right now.
My company just started using software that reads every single external-facing email and meeting transcription (global company of 600 people btw), analyzes everything, and can not only be queried using plain language prompts but identifies trends automatically.
Having a system like this begin working instantly and without any setup is insane to me. The amount of hours saved just in note taking is bonkers. I cannot comprehend how many admin jobs will be lost in the coming years.
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u/Ferocious-Fart 4d ago
It’s also about making something we do want more advanced but they need you to buy into this shit to help fund it
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u/degre715 4d ago
They want to eventually transition to having it so the only way to interact with the internet is through a chatbot, essentially become the filter through which people perceive and interact with the online world.
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u/MindlessVariety8311 4d ago
Its the new fad. We did crypto, then NFTs, now companies are going to put half baked AI implementations into everything.
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u/Kriztauf 4d ago
Everything needs a dedicated chatbot now for some reason
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u/prikaz_da 7h ago
I see a fair amount of job postings from people who are convinced that they need to be doing something AI-related in order to avoid falling behind the rest of their industry. Most of them obviously have no idea what they’re talking about, so they default to “I want all our customers/employees to talk to an AI chatbot”. You can tell they haven’t stopped for a moment to think about the pros and cons of what they’re proposing. We must have the magic chatbot!
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u/tovarish22 3d ago
Well, considering how much people are using it for everything now (unfortunately) - yes, they do think that.
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u/EmergencyKrabbyPatty 3d ago
I don't think a lot of people use them, average Joe doesn't give a damn about AI companion. To me it's a "trend" just like short make by Tiktok and now every app has shorts.
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u/tovarish22 3d ago
...you think TikTok invented short-form video?
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u/EmergencyKrabbyPatty 3d ago
Unlimited short video that you can scroll until the end of humanity ? Defenetly Tiktok made that concept what it is today. Before tiktok we didnt have reals, Youtube short, Snapchat short, whatever short...
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u/tovarish22 3d ago
Oh, my sweet summer, child. You must not have been around when Vine and Musical.ly were popular.
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u/EmergencyKrabbyPatty 3d ago
Are you really comparing Vine and tiktok you old fart ? If the short format is now implemented everywhere its defenetly not because of Vine or musically but purely tiktok that democratize it
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u/tovarish22 3d ago
Look, I get that it’s hard to admit when you’re wrong and to acknowledge you aren’t, in fact, omnipotent, but this is a safe space. You can be vulnerable and honest here.
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u/EmergencyKrabbyPatty 3d ago
If you want me to say Vine made it first or whoever the fuck you want ok but this is not the matter. Being the first to Make something doesnt mean you'll be the reason everyone start to use your invention then. When it is made matter, people might not be ready for your invention. And if there is short everywhere today is not because Vine made it first but because tiktok democratize it.
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u/tovarish22 3d ago
To me it's a "trend" just like short make by Tiktok
If you want me to say Vine made it first or whoever the fuck you want ok but this is not the matter
Uhh....
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u/ConfidenceMan2 3d ago
I have to use Google sheets at work sometimes (I’d rather use excel) and make pivot tables. Every time I make a pivot table now I have to manually close out the AI suggestion box telling me that I can use the pivot table I just made to sum all of a column by a value in another column. This is one of the main reasons you would make a pivot table and which I have to assume anyone that had gotten so far as to know about pivot tables, know they need one, and actually make one would know they can do the thing pivot tables are for. But I’m glad they’re pouring out 5 gallons of water every time I make one to suggest that.
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u/InstructionFast2911 3d ago
They’re positioning it for increasing software development productivity….and killing as many jobs as possible
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u/Solo_Entity 3d ago
It’s just capitalizing on AI as a buzzword. It’s just a tool but they’re blowing it out of proportion.
I say that as someone in the field
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u/neoqueto Karenless Whisperer 2d ago
Other companies want AI everywhere and companies rule the world. It's not for the people, people are a vessel to learn about the capabilities of AI and pass that knowledge onto execs, effectively writing their own death sentences.
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u/Ferocious-Fart 4d ago
My 40 yr old brother in law loser living with his parents while not being there for his daughter is loving his AI “companion”
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u/darkbane 4d ago
https://www.theverge.com/news/643670/microsoft-employee-protest-50th-annivesary-ai
Employee also sent out a mass email with all the information about what they're protesting
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u/Loose-Organization82 4d ago
What’s the context to what she is protesting about?
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u/SainzSealedDelivered 4d ago
From what I can make out its about Microsoft AI services being used by the IDF. I personally have no idea about if its true or not or any further background information
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u/best_uranium_box 4d ago
The guardian and ap did an investigation on it and they're used for military targeting of missiles and drones and draconic facial recognition of Palestinians. They also imbed Microsoft engineers into idf squads. Beyond complicit
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u/De_Facto 4d ago
The platform they use to target areas for bombing is called the Gospel. Wish I was making that shit up. The AI compiles people into a database where it picks people and their perceived whereabouts for targeting and bombing recommendations. Yes, this is real. Yes, it sounds like some shit from a horrific sci-fi dystopian film.
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u/RecognitionPretty289 4d ago
the people of Palestine will be the test subjects for this shit. This shit will come home one day
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u/Bobbobthebob 4d ago
A big part of this is Microsoft and the IDF will both say that there's always a human-being gatekeeping approving these bombing recommendations. But, given the way Israeli society has completely dehumanised Palestinians and the tempo of these attacks, it's hard to believe that they're doing much more than rubber-stamping every suggestion that the AI gives them.
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u/SeaSourceScorch 4d ago
here's a good source of information on it (with links to other sources on the page, if you want more details on any particular point): https://bdsmovement.net/microsoft
Microsoft is perhaps the most complicit tech company in Israel’s illegal apartheid regime and ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. Microsoft’s complicity in Israel’s apartheid and genocide is well documented, exposing its strong ties to the Israeli military, its collaboration with Israeli government ministries, and its involvement in the Israeli prison system, which is notorious for systematic torture and abuse of Palestinians. Microsoft knowingly provides Israel with technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), that is deployed to facilitate grave human rights violations, war crimes, crimes against humanity (including apartheid), as well as genocide.
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u/SilverFortyTwo 4d ago
Microsoft, Google and Palantir are providing essentially the same services to the IDF that IBM provided to the Nazis in the Holocaust.
Cataloguing the entire population, along with their ethnicities, occupations, ages, political beliefs, family heritage, close contacts, and home addresses in order to expedite extermination.
This allows the IDF to kidnap and kill journalists, medics, political leaders and academics, and also maximise casualties and terror per each airstrike.
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u/Ferocious-Fart 4d ago
That’s some bull shit. Israel has a valid military target for every strike I’ve seen. Not their fault Palestinians are harboring Hamas terrorists.
To be clear Israel does have atrocities they need to answer for, but harboring terrorists makes you a valid enemy combatant.
If Hamas is firing rockets from the same building you are housing your family in then that’s your problem.
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u/SilverFortyTwo 4d ago
I guess your username refers to the words that you type
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u/Ferocious-Fart 4d ago
That’s a pathetic attack from a loser that doesn’t know shit but what Hamas propaganda has taught them.
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u/censor-me-daddy 4d ago
Reddit is unironically more antisemitic than modern 4chan. Wild times.
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u/namom256 3d ago
Wild times when "please stop genociding" is considered anti-Semitic, but Elon doing a full on Nazi salute is just an "awkward gesture"
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u/Exanguish 4d ago
Palestine. It’s always Palestine.
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/MindlessVariety8311 4d ago
You're soooo stupid you think people are pretending to care about an ongoing genocide? What's their motivation? George Soros money?
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/MindlessVariety8311 4d ago
LOL ok... so why do you think people are "pretending" to care about the ongoing genocide?
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u/Ferocious-Fart 4d ago
Wanna be humanitarians falling for Hamas terrorists PR.
These “humanitarians” don’t give a shit about hundreds of Israel families kidnapped and murdered in front of each other or the 6 million in a real genocide that died in WW2.
Both sides hate each other and vow to kill another so long as religion is a thing. Palestinians have had 60 years to leave after losing their territory in war.
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u/MindlessVariety8311 4d ago
So you are a genocide denier? You believe there haven't been tens of thousands of Palestinians killed? I'm not a fan of religion. We send Israel billions per year because religious wingnuts in this country think Jesus is gonna come back. And dipshits like you want to "both sides" the issue. As if it is anywhere near an equivalent death toll. You are both sidesing ethnic cleansing.
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u/Ferocious-Fart 3d ago
You are the deniers.
You don’t give two shits about the hundreds of families kidnapped and murdered in front of each other when this conflict began.
You don’t give a shit about the 6,000,000 Jews killed in a real genocide.
You only care about the Palestinians who (A) have had 60 years to leave hostile territory after losing it in war to Israel (B) Are actively harboring Hamas which is illegal and makes them a valid enemy combatant.
I on the other hand do care about the approx 50,000 that have died. It is not genocide because these people are not being rounded up, stripped, head shaved, numbered like cattle or marched into gas chambers.
These people died protecting terrorists. It would take another 125 years of the same loses to even come close to Jewish genocide of WW2 (which you know nothing, wanna be humanitarians don’t give a shit about
While I do want Israel to explain themselves in an international court of law for each and every one of their strikes, to prove what target they were going after and also the abuse Palestinians suffer daily
But you can’t hear that over your blood sheep rage coming from the Hamas propaganda dick you been sucking. All you care about is the biased care for only one side.
You are the fucking problem.
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u/MindlessVariety8311 3d ago
What the hell is wrong with you? I'm not the genocide denier. You are. I acknowledge the holocaust happened and was wrong. I condemn hamas. Will you condemn the IDF? Why do you believe Palestinians don't have a right to life? Or their land? You are a piece of shit.
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u/Dakadaka 4d ago
So your argument is they should leave if they don't want to have their kids murdered and land stolen?
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u/Ferocious-Fart 4d ago
They thought trump was going to make it better! lol dumb asses getting their face eaten by leopards now
First thing he did is allow more serious weapons to be used
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u/Dramatic_Mastodon_93 4d ago
Funny how these tech higher ups act like we live in a utopia where more automation means less work for more money and not poverty.
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u/Any_Pilot6455 3d ago
When your job consists of drafting manipulative emails to boss people around with, the idea that a machine can do that for you and you can spend more time sexually harassing the service staff at your favorite establishments, I can see the appeal
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u/RecognitionPretty289 4d ago
Another angle from Twitter: https://x.com/RamAbdu/status/1908268009614958981
What a brave woman and because people will ask for proof
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/23/israeli-military-gaza-war-microsoft
The Israeli military’s reliance on Microsoft’s cloud technology and artificial intelligence systems surged during the most intensive phase of its bombardment of Gaza, leaked documents reveal.
The files offer an inside view of how Microsoft deepened its relationship with Israel’s defence establishment after 7 October 2023, supplying the military with greater computing and storage services and striking at least $10m in deals to provide thousands of hours of technical support.
Microsoft’s deep ties with Israel’s military are revealed in an investigation by the Guardian with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and a Hebrew-language outlet, Local Call. It is based in part on documents obtained by Drop Site News, which has published its own story.
As a trusted partner of Israel’s defence ministry, Microsoft was frequently tasked with working on sensitive and highly classified projects. Its staff also worked closely with the IDF’s intelligence directorate, including its elite surveillance division, Unit 8200.
During the Gaza offensive, Microsoft’s suite of communications and messaging systems were used by Ofek, an air force unit responsible for managing large databases of potential targets for lethal strikes known as “target banks”.
Microsoft’s staff and contractors have also worked closely with military personnel across the IDF, providing advice and technical support both remotely and on military bases.
She wrote a letter to her colleagues here:
https://www.theverge.com/news/643670/microsoft-employee-protest-50th-annivesary-ai
My name is Ibtihal, and for the past 3.5 years, I’ve been a software engineer on Microsoft’s AI Platform org. I spoke up today because after learning that my org was powering the genocide of my people in Palestine, I saw no other moral choice. This is especially true when I’ve witnessed how Microsoft has tried to quell and suppress any dissent from my coworkers who tried to raise this issue. For the past year and a half, our Arab, Palestinian, and Muslim community at Microsoft has been silenced, intimidated, harassed, and doxxed, with impunity from Microsoft. Attempts at speaking up at best fell on deaf ears, and at worst, led to the firing of two employees for simply holding a vigil. There was simply no other way to make our voices heard.
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u/Choice_Reindeer7759 4d ago
- What is “Lavender” and how does it work?
Lavender uses machine learning to assign residents of Gaza a numerical score relating to the suspected likelihood that a person is a member of an armed group. Based on reports, Israeli military officers are responsible for setting the threshold beyond which an individual can be marked as a target subject to attack.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/09/10/questions-and-answers-israeli-militarys-use-digital-tools-gaza
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u/sgt_futtbucker 4d ago
I’d be protesting the amount of registry and command line fuckery it takes to completely cleanse Windows 11 from their garbage CPU-hungry AI
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u/Theinternetdumbens 4d ago
AI is replacing the internet. Soon you will be more alone in your room by yourself than ever before!
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u/PraterViolet 3d ago
"Please briefly write your question in the box below" I want to query a payment made from my account.
"So you're calling because you want to change a payment Is that correct?" NO
"So you're calling because you want to order a new payment card?" NO
"Please wait while I transfer you to a human operator. We will reply within 24 hours."
Yet another massively frustrating waste of my time. Thanks AI!
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u/SilverFortyTwo 4d ago
Microsoft, Google and Palantir are providing essentially the same services to the IDF that IBM provided to the Nazis in the Holocaust.
Cataloguing the entire population, along with their ethnicities, occupations, ages, political beliefs, family heritage, close contacts, and home addresses in order to expedite extermination.
This allows the IDF to kidnap and kill journalists, medics, political leaders and academics, and also maximise casualties and terror per each airstrike.
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u/Poop_1111 4d ago
Where can one learn more about this with fact-based evidence?
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u/SilverFortyTwo 4d ago
Unfortunately, we didn't learn about the extent of IBM's role in the Holocaust until much, much later. The technical details of that sort of stuff is very secret for a reason. Also, by its very nature, AI is a black box you can't see inside.
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u/SeaSourceScorch 4d ago
here's a good source of information on it (with links to other sources on the page, if you want more details on any particular point): https://bdsmovement.net/microsoft
sources cited on that page include the United Nations, the Guardian, and AP News.
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u/Amethoran 4d ago
I hear your protest but pleeeease shut up I can't say that out loud or the Internet will eat me alive
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u/loading066 3d ago
Well, I hope they didn't support Genocide Joe or Killer Kamala. That would have been so much worse...
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u/SeaSourceScorch 4d ago
if you're clicking through to try to understand what this protest is about (it's quite hard to hear!), this is about microsoft's complicity with the israeli apartheid regime.
here's a good source of information on it (with links to other sources on the page, if you want more details on any particular point): https://bdsmovement.net/microsoft
Microsoft is perhaps the most complicit tech company in Israel’s illegal apartheid regime and ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. Microsoft’s complicity in Israel’s apartheid and genocide is well documented, exposing its strong ties to the Israeli military, its collaboration with Israeli government ministries, and its involvement in the Israeli prison system, which is notorious for systematic torture and abuse of Palestinians. Microsoft knowingly provides Israel with technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), that is deployed to facilitate grave human rights violations, war crimes, crimes against humanity (including apartheid), as well as genocide.
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u/NkhukuWaMadzi 4d ago
"Co-Pilot" wants to steal all your data from the cloud and give it to the Atomic Mole People!!
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u/Takhar7 4d ago
Can anyone provide context about the protestor?
AI is killing kids now? How?
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u/Choice_Reindeer7759 4d ago edited 4d ago
Well I know Israel relies on AI to "generate targets" https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/
Is the cell tower triangulation data accurate enough to inform military decisions?
Cell tower triangulation data, in which a mobile phone’s location is approximated based on the cell towers it can connect to, is unlikely to give accurate information as to the precise whereabouts of mobile devices and thus the people holding them. The inaccuracy would be exacerbated by lack of electricity to charge phones after Israel cut all power lines to Gaza and Gaza’s sole power station ceased functioning because of the blockade on fuel imports and by massive damage to Gaza’s telephone infrastructure.
Tools that use cell tower triangulation data to calculate civilian presence as a way of informing decisions related to military operations increase the risk of civilian harm in those operations. The tools could lead military commanders to conclude wrongly that there were no or few civilians present in a certain area and that this area could therefore be attacked.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/09/10/questions-and-answers-israeli-militarys-use-digital-tools-gaza#_Is_the_cell3
u/SeaSourceScorch 4d ago
here's a good place to read some more info about it (with links to other sources on the page, if you want more details on any particular point): https://bdsmovement.net/microsoft
Microsoft is perhaps the most complicit tech company in Israel’s illegal apartheid regime and ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. Microsoft’s complicity in Israel’s apartheid and genocide is well documented, exposing its strong ties to the Israeli military, its collaboration with Israeli government ministries, and its involvement in the Israeli prison system, which is notorious for systematic torture and abuse of Palestinians. Microsoft knowingly provides Israel with technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), that is deployed to facilitate grave human rights violations, war crimes, crimes against humanity (including apartheid), as well as genocide.
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u/RuralCaribou 4d ago
Most reverent thing I’ve seen is a while. He hears them. Ridiculous situation but respectful.
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u/ReduceReuseReuse 4d ago
Protester: “Microsoft is killing children.”
CEO: “Thank you.”