'Lethal tech for genocide': Indian-American Microsoft engineer quits after confronting leaders over AI ties to Israel

CHENNAI: Indian-American software engineer Vaniya Agrawal, a Microsoft employee who had questioned the company’s leadership at their 50th-anniversary celebration over its alleged role in arming the Israeli military with AI-powered technology, has announced her resignation in a company-wide email. In her announcement, she stated, “I am not proud to resign—I am compelled."

Agrawal wrote that she had joined Microsoft believing in its mission to “empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more.” But over the past year and a half, she said, she had become increasingly aware of the company’s deepening ties with the military-industrial complex.

“Microsoft cloud and AI enable the Israeli military to be more lethal and destructive in Gaza. It is undeniable that Microsoft’s Azure cloud offerings and AI developments form the technological backbone of Israel’s automated apartheid and genocide systems,” she wrote.

She further urged Microsoft leadership to "divest from Israel and stop selling lethal technology to power apartheid and genocide.”

In her email, while acknowledging that leaving Microsoft is not a viable option for many, she requested employees to instead use their “position, power, and privilege to hold Microsoft accountable to its own values and mission.”

On April 4, Agrawal had interrupted a panel featuring Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and former CEOs Bill Gates, and Steve Ballmer. “50,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been murdered with Microsoft technology. How dare you? Shame on all of you for celebrating on their blood,” she had said.

Her protest came shortly after another employee, Ibtihal Aboussad, interrupted AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman’s speech, calling him a “war profiteer.” Aboussad was later escorted out of the venue.

While Agrawal had already given her two weeks’ notice and was preparing to leave the company on April 11, her exit was expedited following her protest. On April 7, a manager emailed that Microsoft “has decided to make your resignation immediately effective today," as quoted by the Associated Press.

On the other hand, Aboussad was told she was being fired immediately during a call with a human resources representative the same day.

Both employees said they expected the outcome after losing access to their work accounts shortly after their public acts of dissent.

In February, five Microsoft employees were removed from a meeting with CEO Satya Nadella after protesting the company’s military contracts, the AP reported.

An investigation by the AP earlier this year had reported that AI models developed by Microsoft and OpenAI were used in an Israeli military program to select bombing targets during the recent wars in Gaza and Lebanon. The report also detailed a 2023 errant airstrike in Lebanon that had hit a civilian vehicle, killing three children and their grandmother.

Agrawal had referred to the AP report when citing a $133 million contract between Microsoft and Israel’s Ministry of Defense, at the event.

Read Vaniya Agrawal's full email here:

(With inputs from AP)