Microsoft is a major provider of cloud services and artificial intelligence for the Israeli military, according to internal documents.

Remember: no microsoft

In total, the costs just for engineering support and consultancy with the Israeli military have amounted to approximately $10 million since the start of the October 2023 Gaza offensive, with additional support projects worth another $30 million under consideration in 2024. The total size of Israeli MoD’s contract with Microsoft, including the usage of the Azure platform, is much larger, but the exact figure could not be ascertained from the documents.

rather trivial sum

Drop Site had reported in September last year that Microsoft was criticized for its sponsorship of the “I Love Mamram” conference celebrating the 65th anniversary of Mamram, the Israeli military’s Center of Computing and Information Systems unit, where Microsoft Israel’s CEO was slated to speak. The documents now reveal that Mamram was a Microsoft customer. The company has also faced criticism for matching employee donations to organizations that support the Israeli military, while not matching donations to organizations that support Palestinians, and even delisting organizations like UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

      • Enjoyer_of_Games [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        3·
        6 hours ago

        Piracy isn’t enough, the market power of Microsoft isn’t determined by sales but by power over developers. Here is former Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer describing this strategy in depth

        If you are using software that targets windows platforms you are contributing to Microsofts monopoly power. This even includes when you download free libre software compiled for windows (the developers of even libre software are paying close attention to the download counts of each version from multiple sources in addition to any stat tracking that might be in the software itself).

        When you browse the internet the websites you visit are using your browser user agent to track how many users are on windows. These stats from many sites are amalgamated into market share by many data vendors that developers pay attention to.

        When steam does a hardware survey on your PC it contributes to a OS market share stat that developers are keenly aware of.

        As long as Windows has dominant market share developers will exclusively target it and as long as the majority of software targets windows it’s market share is secure. As long as it’s market share is secure Microsoft will have impunity to make genocide AI.

        The reality is that running pirated windows makes you no less of a scab than the loss guy

        • plinky [he/him]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
          3·
          5 hours ago

          (a) i don’t disagree, but you know, some stuff requires .docx or get bent for me, so i either pay for it or don’t. (b) user agent is freely swappable © libre software model of spread is more people use it, more developers would be grateful or annoyed and help develop it, doesn’t matter the platform practically. (d) games i think is true, but also will be ms consumer downfall, cause it’s one of three anchor points - office/games/specific big software (video or otherwise), and purely gamers are very annoyed at windows 11