Microsoft denies its AI given to Israeli army used to harm Gaza civilians

Microsoft has acknowledged that it sold advanced artificial intelligence and cloud computing services to the Israeli military during the war in Gaza. However, the company also said it has found no evidence to date that its Azure platform and AI technologies were used to target or harm people in Gaza. The unsigned blog post on Microsoft's corporate website appears to be the company's first public acknowledgement of its deep involvement in the Israel-Gaza war.

The statement comes nearly three months after an investigation by The Associated Press revealed previously unreported details about the American tech giant's close partnership with the Israeli Defense Ministry, with military use of commercial AI products skyrocketing by nearly 200 times after the October 7 Hamas attack.

The AP reported that the Israeli military uses Azure to transcribe, translate and process intelligence gathered through mass surveillance, which can then be cross-checked with Israel's in-house AI-enabled targeting systems and vice versa.

Meanwhile, human rights groups have raised concerns that AI systems, which can be flawed and prone to errors, are being used to help make decisions about who or what to target, resulting in the deaths of innocent people.

Owing to employee concerns and media reports, Microsoft said on Thursday that the company has been prompted to launch an internal review and hire an external firm to undertake "additional fact-finding." The statement did not identify the outside firm or provide a copy of its report.