Microsoft has fired two employees who heckled the company’s AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman during its 50th anniversary celebration over the tech industry’s ties with Israel.
Microsoft said in a termination letter that the workers’ misconduct during a live broadcast from Washington State on Friday was “designed to gain notoriety and cause maximum disruption to this highly anticipated event.”
Ibtihal Aboussad, a software engineer in the company’s AI division who is based in Canada, was fired Monday over “just cause, wilful misconduct, disobedience or wilful neglect of duty.”
The protest began as Suleyman was on stage presenting product updates and a long-term vision for the company at the Redmond, Washington event to a global audience that included Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer.
“Mustafa, shame on you,” Aboussad shouted as she walked toward the stage, forcing Suleyman to pause his speech. “You claim that you care about using AI for good, but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military. Fifty thousand people have died and Microsoft powers this genocide,” she said, using figures published by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
“Thank you for your protest. I hear you,” said Suleyman.
Aboussad persisted, shouting that both the 40-year-old British CEO and “all of Microsoft” had blood on their hands for supplying artificial intelligence technology to the Israeli military.
She also threw a keffiyeh scarf onto the stage before being escorted out of the event.
A second Microsoft employee, Indian-American engineer Vaniya Agrawal, later interrupted another part of the celebration.
She had already resigned from the company but was told Monday to leave five days early.
A report by The Associated Press earlier this year revealed that AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI were used as part of an Israeli military program to select bombing targets during the war in Gaza and Lebanon.