Brad SmithPresident of Microsoft1 Microsoft WayRedmond, WA 98052 Re: Domain Awareness System – New York City Contract Dear Mr. Smith,We, the undersigned civil rights and community-based organizations, call on Microsoft to end its surveillance partnership with the NYPD on the Domain Awareness System (DAS). Your company has worked with the Read more…
By Brett Wilkins The current wave of deadly civil unrest sparked by police and white supremacist killings of unarmed black people including Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have brought increased scrutiny of tech companies’ business dealings with law enforcement agencies. This, in turn, has resulted in some leading Read more…
By Brett Wilkins The US military is adopting new principles for what it calls the ethical use of artificial intelligence technology in warfare, sparking widespread skepticism from ethics advocates and other critics. Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced the new AI ethics guidelines in a memo released on February 24 in Read more…
By Brett Wilkins Microsoft — which recently adopted a set of six core principles for the development of ethical artificial intelligence (AI) — has come under fire for investing in an Israeli company that produces facial recognition technology used to monitor and control Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. AI For Read more…
By Brett Wilkins One thing is for certain: at the end of next month, the US Defense Department will award a $10 billion contract to a tech company to develop and deploy JEDI. That’s not another less-than-serious Pentagon foray into Star Wars-inspired folly, like the Defense Innovation Unit’s recent quest Read more…
Amazon, Microsoft and Salesforce among leading tech firms with government contracts tied to immigrant detention By Brett Wilkins As much of the world recoils in horror at continuing reports of refugees, including young children, being imprisoned, abused and even dying in US concentration camps, scores of businesses big and small Read more…